Abstract

Research on internal migration has been traditionally based on a banal conception of space, without taking into account how regional representations, the socially constructed space, affect the decision of migrating to another region. This work uses the methodologies of discussion group and sociological discourse analysis to identify the discourses of future professionals from other regions in Chile about the Region of Antofagasta, a mining area located in Northern Chile. Despite the growing prosperity of this region during the past two decades, the discourses that represent Antofagasta have a negative denotation with different features according to the socio-spatial distance to this region and gender. These representations could reduce the arrival of qualified migrants and women to Antofagasta and negatively affect the future development of the region.