Abstract

The aim is to identify references to the figure of the Argentine immigrant in the recent discourse of the Chilean national press and analyze them in light of the imaginary component of cross-border mobility between Argentina and Chile. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was applied to references to the Argentine immigrant published by the newspapers El Mercurio and La Tercera in 2022-2023. The results reveal a marginal presence of figure of the Argentine immigrant in these discourses. On the rare occasions when it is mentioned, it is represented positively or neutrally, portraying the Argentine immigrant as something more than a cross-border migrant, dissociating them from crime and irregularity, characterizing them as infrequent, and detaching Argentina from the Andean-cross-border. Additionally, Argentina and Chile are framed as allies in the fight against transnational crime and victims of a shared cross-border enemy, embodied by Peru. It is concluded that both the dominant imaginary of Chilean national identity and its alterity, as well as the social memory of crossborder mobility between Argentina and Chile, inform the discursive practices employed by the Chilean national press when referring to Argentine immigrants, fostering a specific framing of the information. © 2025.