Articles

Estudios Fronterizos, vol. 25, 2024, e147

https://doi.org/10.21670/ref.2411147

Cross-border mobility and education between Tacna and Arica. A prospect from the Peruvian context

Movilidad transfronteriza y educación entre las ciudades de Tacna y Arica. Una mirada desde el contexto peruano

Ricardo Jiménez Palacios^{a *} https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9741-8689
Mariela Irene Bobadilla Quispe^a https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5172-4880
Hugo Cirilo Calizaya Calizaya^a https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1336-9608
Luis Alfredo Fernández Vizcarra^a https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5818-4461

^a Universidad Privada de Tacna, Escuela de Postgrado, Tacna, Peru, e-mail: rjimenezp@upt.pe, maibobadilla@upt.pe, hucali@upt.pe, lfvfernandez@msn.com

^* Corresponding author: Ricardo Jiménez Palacios. E-mail: rjimenezp@upt.pe

Received on March 1, 2023.
Accepted on May 3, 2024.
Published on June 3, 2024.

CITATION: Jiménez Palacios, R., Bobadilla Quispe, M. I., Calizaya Calizaya, H. C. & Fernández Vizcarra, L. A. (2024). Cross-border mobility and education between Tacna and Arica. A prospect from the Peruvian context. Estudios Fronterizos, 25, Article e147. https://doi.org/10.21670/ref.2411147

Abstract:
The objective of the article is to discuss the problems of education in the Peruvian-Chilean border context. For this, the field work was located during the second half of 2022 in the city of Tacna. Methodologically, a qualitative strategy was developed based on semi-structured interviews aimed at border actors such as merchants, transporters and teachers. The results of the research show that the problem between education and border mobility acquires particularities in the context of emigration or the city of origin. The latter, unlike previous scientific production, which has placed greater emphasis on the educational problem in relation to immigration, the place of migratory destination or mobility. Likewise, research evidence invites us to critically rethink the concept of border mobility, considering the shift in mobility, interconnected mobility and the mobility of knowledge in the border context.
Keywords: border studies, cross-border mobility, education, Tacna, Arica.

Resumen:
El objetivo del artículo es discutir la problemática de la educación en el contexto fronterizo peruano-chileno. Para ello el trabajo de campo se situó durante el segundo semestre del 2022 en la ciudad de Tacna. Metodológicamente se desarrolló una estrategia cualitativa basada en entrevistas semiestructuradas dirigidas a actores de la frontera tales como comerciantes, transportistas y docentes. Los resultados de la investigación dan cuenta de que el problema entre educación y movilidad fronteriza adquiere particularidades en el contexto emigratorio o de la ciudad de origen. Esto último, a diferencia de la producción científica previa, que ha hecho mayor énfasis en el problema educativo en relación con la inmigración, el lugar de destino migratorio o de movilidad. Asimismo, las evidencias de investigación invitan a repensar críticamente el concepto de movilidad fronteriza considerándose el giro de la movilidad, la movilidad interconectada y la movilidad de saberes en el contexto fronterizo.
Palabras clave: estudios fronterizos, movilidad fronteriza, educación, Tacna, Arica.

Original article language: Spanish.

Introduction

When addressing the problem between education and borders, in various South American settings, the approach has turned toward international immigration processes. For the Brazilian case, the reflection on the pair “education/borders” has followed this orientation. For example, in the Corumbá (Brazil)-Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia) pair, Bolivian students face difficulties inserting themselves into the curricular content of Brazilian schools (Golin & Assumpção, 2017; Machado García Arf, 2016). In relation to the border context of Paraná (Brazil), reference is made to the insertion of migrant children in educational institutions in Foz do Iguaçu (Ferreira & Dias, 2019).

Similarly, in the case of the Chilean north, the reflection has been oriented toward the insertion of immigrant schoolchildren into the educational context of Chile (Joiko, 2023), with special emphasis on the situation of Peruvian and Bolivian immigrant students and in reference to curricular adaptations (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018; Cavieres, 2006; Mondaca Rojas, 2018; Neyra V. et al., 2020), school coexistence (Mondaca et al., 2020; Tovar-Correal & Bustos González, 2022) or teaching aspects (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018; Bustos González & Gairín Sallán, 2017). In the same way, the most recent production emphasizes the situation of nontraditional migrants and their insertion into the educational context (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018; Bustos González & Pizarro Pizarro, 2017, 2019).

However, the “education/borders” problem arises from, first, an international migration perspective and, second, its main place of enunciation as the city-destination of the immigrant population.¹ Hence, addressing the research gap in the “education/borders” problem related to the city of Tacna (Peru) presents the following two challenges: approaching it outside an international migration approach and thinking about it from the place from which one is emigrating.

These two aspects led us to reflect on mobility across the border through an approach that problematizes mobility beyond migration and beyond a transfer across the border. An approach to mobility (Cresswell, 2010, 2014; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2000) considers its other characteristics. Similarly, to discuss the problem, an investigation with a qualitative approach was developed through the semistructured interview technique. Out of a total of forty interviews, eight were selected to carry out an intercase analysis, and the case selection was determined using the characteristic of being a woman or a man inserted into small-scale border trade.

The two findings from the analysis are related to the problem of education in the border city of Tacna. The first refers to the presence of daughters and sons, who do not mobilize but nevertheless give meaning to the border mobility of merchants. This situation makes it possible to demonstrate the need for cross-border care networks to support the socioemotional competencies of schoolchildren. The second refers to the mobility of knowledge in popular fairs as places of learning related to schoolchildren’s strengthening of their educational competencies. These elements can guide future debates in border contexts characterized mainly as emitters of international migrants.

This material is organized into three sections. The first section refers to the background and theoretical debates that allow for the identification of the research gap to be addressed. Thus, this section begins with the contextualization of Tacna (Peru) and Arica (Chile) as border cities. Next, the Chilean migratory context and how the debate related to education and borders is inserted is presented. Finally, the Peruvian migratory context is addressed, highlighting the need to generate new research approaches that make it possible to problematize education/border pairs.

The second section, which refers to the methodological aspects, provides an account of the research framework in which this document is developed. Similarly, the analysis technique that has led to the identification of the research findings is noted. Finally, the third section is organized into the following two parts to report the research findings: on the one hand, the approach of interconnected mobility and socioemotional competences in the border context and, on the other hand, the mobility of knowledge and educational competences in popular border fairs.

Tacna and Arica: a history of daily exchanges crossed by national limits

Tacna and Arica are two cities in the extreme southern region of Peru and the extreme northern region of Chile, respectively. They make up one of the most dynamic cross-border urban complexes in South America (Dilla Alfonso & Álvarez Torres, 2018). Historically, the territories of Tacna and Arica have remained related under the logic of the vertical occupation of the Andean space² as a land ownership and economic autonomy strategy of the lordships of the Andes in pre-Hispanic times (Dollfus, 1981; Murra, 1975). This spatial relationship was maintained during the Inca period, the colonial period and part of the republican period.

Although the conception of borders as national limits was consolidated through the independence processes of the first half of the nineteenth century, in the case of Tacna (Peru) and Arica (Chile), considering two key milestones that occurred in the nineteenth and nineteenth centuries is necessary: the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the Republics of Chile and Peru (or Treaty of Ancón) of 1883 and the Treaty of Lima of 1929. During the last decades of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1879 to 1884, the so-called War of the Pacific, War of the Saltpeter or War of the 10 cents were unleashed, and Chile fought against the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation.

Even though delving deeply into the causes and consequences of this fact would be extensive but is necessary to indicate that this conflict is framed in a period in which Latin American societies experienced a consolidation of their respective states, as well as the strengthening of their institutions─the formation of a nation and “the urgency of resources for their subsistence and satisfaction of their aspirations” (Aljovín de Losada & Cavieres F., 2005, p. 13). Overall, mechanisms for the resolution of international conflicts at the end of the nineteenth century are lacking. Before the conflict, the provinces of Tacna, Arica and Tarapacá belonged to the Peruvian administration. In addition, the Peruvian territory expanded south to the Loa River, which territorially demarcated the border between Peru and Bolivia (Pons Muzzo, 2017). Bolivia had an outlet to the Pacific Ocean from the Loa River to Paposo Bay, where the border with Chile was demarcated (Pons Muzzo, 2017); see Figure 1.

Figure 1. The borders of Peru, Chile and Bolivia in 1879

Source: taken from Gustavo Pons Muzzo (2017)

After the conflict, in October 1883, Peru and Chile signed the so-called Treaty of Ancón. The second article of the Treaty of Ancón indicates that the “Republic of Peru cedes to the Republic of Chile, perpetually and unconditionally, the territory of the coastal province of Tarapacá” (Tratado de Paz y Amistad entre las repúblicas de Chile y Perú, 1883, Art. 2), whereas it’s the third article of the treaty indicates that the provinces of Tacna and Arica will continue under the possession of

Chile and subject to Chilean legislation and authorities for a period of ten years, counted from the ratification of this peace treaty. Upon expiration of this period, a plebiscite will decide by popular vote, whether the territory of the aforementioned provinces remains definitively in the domain and sovereignty of Chile or whether it continues to be part of the Peruvian territory. (Tratado de Paz y Amistad entre las repúblicas de Chile y Perú, 1883, Art. 3°)

In short, until that time, the Tacno-Ariqueño territory was not constituted in a proper border territory in the strict sense of national limits. From the pre-Columbian period (Dollfus, 1981; Murra, 1975) through the colonial and republican periods until the nineteenth century, the Tacno-Ariqueño territorial pair presented a constant exchange based on the mobility of the altiplano toward the coast, where Arica was the natural port of Tacna (Chávez Vargas, 2022; González Riesle, 2015). Until 1929, Tacna and Arica became border cities divided by national territorial limits.

The aforementioned plebiscite that Tacna and Arica had to carry out in March 1894, as established in the Treaty of Ancón, was not carried out (Pons Muzzo, 2017). Instead, Tacna and Arica remained under Chilean administration for nearly half a century. The destiny of both provinces was specified through the signing of the Treaty of Lima and its Complementary Protocol; specifically, the second article indicates

The territory of Tacna and Arica will be divided into two parts. Tacna for Peru and Arica for Chile. The dividing line between these parts and, consequently, the border between the territories of Peru and Chile, will start from a point on the coast that will be called ‘Concordia’. (Tratado de Lima y su Protocolo Complementario, 1929, Art. 2)

Thus, in August 1929, Tacna returned to the Peruvian administration, whereas Arica remained under the Chilean administration. Since then, Tacna (Peru) and Arica (Chile) have maintained the socioterritorial relationships that characterized both of them historically and on a daily basis, with the exception that these relationships are mediated by the presence of a national border limit.

The daily exchange between Tacna (Peru) and Arica (Chile), as frontier cities since 1929, must be understood within the framework of the historical exchange determined by the vertical occupation of the Andean territory (Dollfus, 1981; Murra, 1975) from the Altiplano to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Hence, why the Chilean north has undergone a particular migration process in relation to the migratory process in other central cities in Chile, such as Santiago and Valparaíso, is understood (Guizardi et al., 2017).

The approach to education and border mobility from the academy of northern Chile

The decade of the 1990s is often considered when migration flows in Chile were transformed (Cano & Soffia, 2009; Stefoni E., 2001). The restoration of democracy, economic consolidation and reduction in poverty and unemployment led Chile to position itself as a destination country for immigrants from the South American region (Cano & Soffia, 2009). Historically, until the beginning of the 21st century, three migratory stages were considered in Chile (Stefoni E., 2001). The first stage had an immigrant character and occurred between the middle of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century; it came mainly from Europe, in addition to Asia and Arabia. A second trend, this time emigrant, during the 1970s and 1980s developed in the context of the military dictatorship. During the second trend, a first moment characterized by emigration for political reasons and a second moment characterized by emigration for economic reasons can be distinguished.

The third stage is contextualized in a period of economic development and return to democracy in Chile (Cano & Soffia, 2009; Stefoni E., 2001), which is characterized “by the arrival of immigrants from various Latin American countries, especially Peruvians, Bolivians, Argentines, Ecuadorians and Cubans” (Stefoni E., 2001, p. 8). The progressive situation of Peruvians in Chile is a concern of the academy to highlight and deepen immigration processes. However, during the second decade of the 21st century, evidence of increased migration and human mobility in northern Chile began to be generated (Gonzalvez Torralbo et al., 2021; Guizardi, 2016; Guizardi et al., 2019; Jiménez Palacios, 2019; Liberona Concha et al., 2017; Stefoni et al., 2021; Tapia Ladino et al., 2017, 2019, 2021).

Similarly, it is important to highlight the presence of scientific production regarding the problematization of the relationship between migration and education (Jiménez et al., 2017; Stefoni & Stang, 2017). Thus, there is production on public policies of intercultural education and their adaptation to international immigration processes (Riedemann et al., 2020), as well as on border problems and school practices as a challenge for managing relationships inside the classroom (Stang Alva et al., 2019).

However, delving into the dynamics of human mobility in northern Chile revealed the presence of other types of mobility beyond migration. While migration implies a change in permanent residence, on the northern border of Chile, there are dynamics of border mobility that transcended migration, such as border labor mobility, commercial labor mobility, tourist mobility and health mobility (Tapia Ladino et al., 2017, 2019).

On the other hand, delving into the dynamics of human mobility in northern Chile (Guizardi et al., 2017) made it possible to highlight the particularities and differences among the behavior of migration in Santiago de Chile, the metropolis where the main studies on migration have been conducted, and their behavior in northern cities, such as Arica and Iquique.

Regarding borders and education, the case of northern Chile has shown greater scientific production regarding the inclusion of migrants in the educational system (Bustos & Gairín, 2017; Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018; Bustos González & Gairín Sallán, 2017; Bustos González & Mondaca Rojas, 2018; Bustos González & Pizarro Pizarro, 2017; Cerda León, 2019; Mondaca et al., 2017; Neyra V. et al., 2020). According to the document Estimación de personas extranjeras residentes habituales en Chile al 31 de diciembre de 2020 (Estimate of foreigners habitually resident in Chile as of December 31, 2020) (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas de Chile & Departamento de Extranjería y Migración, 2021), a total of 30 087 foreigners resided in the region of Arica and Parinacota in 2020, representing 11.9% of the total population of the region (Collado, 2021). The figure for 2020 increased compared to that for 2019 (27 890) and 2018 (25 675). Regarding nationality, for the Arica and Parinacota regions, the foreign population is predominantly Bolivian (39%) and Peruvian (36.9%), followed by the Venezuelan (9.8%) and Colombian (5.2%) populations.

As mentioned in the previous section, Bolivian and Peruvian migration in northern Chile has antecedents from the precolonial period (Zapata-Sepúlveda, 2019), which implies vertical mobility of a historical and territorial nature. The presence of Bolivian and Peruvian migrant populations has led to a critical focus on various educational aspects, among which four categories are distinguished that allow organizing and analyzing the situation of Chilean scientific production regarding the contexts of education, migration and border in the Chilean north. These are the relationship between migration and the educational curriculum, the migratory situation of students, the teaching reception of migration and the perception of new migrants in the educational context.

Regarding the reference to migration and the school curriculum, it is important to account for three key pieces of evidence. The first is the imbalance in the curricular content between Chile and its neighboring countries, which creates certain advantages and inequalities. The second element addresses the persistence of hegemonic, nationalist and triumphalist discourses of Chilean identity vis-à-vis its Bolivian and Peruvian peers, a situation inherited from the warlike conflict of the nineteenth century and reflected in the curricular content. Third, the hegemony of this discourse assumes the integration of migrant students from a story of assimilation and adaptation without discussing the need to diversify the curricular structure.

Migrant students of Peruvian origin present certain advantages over their Chilean peers due to differences in curricular content (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018). Thus, although basic education in Chile is eight years, basic education³ in Peru is six years; this difference means that Peruvian students know certain curricular content that their Chilean peers have not yet been exposed to (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018). On the other hand, this curricular advantage has led to a better attitude toward study by Peruvian migrant students, and this attitude has been related to positioning strategy and the need for social acceptance (Bustos González & Mondaca Rojas, 2018).

However, the curricular content of Chilean schools still shows a weak adaptation to the migratory diversity of the classroom despite the perception of a better predisposition toward study. In this sense, an element to consider is the treatment of teaching history in school (Cavieres, 2006; Mondaca Rojas, 2018; Neyra V. et al., 2020). The armed conflicts of the nineteenth century still created a stereotypical vision toward Peruvian and Bolivian migrants, the same ones that configure a nationalist curricular account of Chile, in contrast to a culturally and politically backward migrant (Mondaca Rojas, 2018). Unfortunately, this nationalist discourse is still present “in teachers and educational policies in terms of content” (Mondaca Rojas, 2018, p. 226). Given this vision, certain authors propose the generation of broader and more inclusive perspectives in the classroom that is aimed at an understanding built from a supranational historical perspective “to promote a culture of common development” (Neyra V. et al., 2020) from schools on the northern border of Chile.

The element that refers to the story of assimilation and adaptation in integration is related to the element that addresses hegemonic discourses to the extent that the curriculum continues to reproduce “the values of a hegemonic and homogeneous Chilean culture, where diversity is always treated as a marginal aspect” (Mondaca et al., 2020, p. 268). The perception of a hegemonic Chilean culture implies that the integration of migrant students is referred to as a kind of assimilation and adaptation to the school system (Bustos & Gairín, 2017) without questioning the cultural patterns and curricular structures of the Chilean school.

Migrants adapt to the educational curriculum dialogs in the absence of teaching strategies for their inclusion in school. Previous research indicates that, in general, the teacher has a weak concern for generating inclusion or adaptation actions with migrant students (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018). This situation occurs because the profile of the migrant student, as explained above, is characterized by adequate academic performance and behavior lacking serious disciplinary problems. This context implies that the teacher preserves the statu quo in the school, leaving migrant students “to assume―many times alone―the struggle for inclusion” (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018, p. 144).

However, far from a positive situation, previous research points out the heterogeneity in the problems of the migrant population in the classroom─ranging from sociocultural differences and linguistic variants (Tovar-Correal & Bustos González, 2022)─through dissimilar perceptions about discipline in the classroom and the use of clothing, uniforms and student presentation (Bustos González & Mondaca Rojas, 2018)─even the perceptions of migrant parents who note “a certain lack of demand and rigor on the part of the teachers “(Bustos González & Gairín Sallán, 2017, p. 18).

Similarly, the migrant situation of the student is determined by the inclusion processes that he must produce alone, far from being “conditions generated in the reception context” (Bustos & Gairín, 2017, p. 215). Thus, the situation of migrant students in northern Chile becomes more complicated, as it is assumed that they must be assimilated into the system (Bustos & Gairín, 2017; Bustos González & Pizarro Pizarro, 2017). In this way, the academy identifies three challenges that complicate the process of assimilation into the system as a solitary company for students. The first challenge refers to the presence of a Chilean culture constructed as hegemonic and homogeneous in which cultural diversities are treated marginally (Mondaca et al., 2020). The second, closely related to the first challenge, supposes an ideological framework in relation to the Chileanization and deperuanization of border areas, translated into parades and nationalisms inserted in educational practices (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018). Third, the presence of sanctioning attitudes of the educational system in the face of linguistic diversity are manifested in the oral and written expressions of migrant students (Tovar-Correal & Bustos González, 2022).

Finally, an issue reviewed by the academy in recent years refers to the insertion of new or nontraditional migrants (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018; Bustos González & Pizarro Pizarro, 2017, 2019) in the educational apparatus of northern Chile. Thus, traditional migrants include the Bolivian and Peruvian school populations, whereas nontraditional migrants include students from Colombia, Ecuador or the Caribbean. The presence of nontraditional migrants creates two situations. First, it has allowed the visualization of the migrant phenomenon in schools, a situation that has remained invisible in the face of traditional migration (Bustos González & Díaz Aguad, 2018). Second, the presence of nontraditional migrants has revealed certain characteristics of the traditional migrant population, such as the introverted nature of the former in relation to the latter.⁴

In summary, the Chilean academy has highlighted the migratory problems related to education in the border regions of northern Chile and has focused its concern on Bolivian and Peruvian migration to highlight problems related to the curriculum, the coexistence between school peers and teacher reception of migration. Similarly, the most recent production has begun to make visible the situation of nontraditional migrants compared to the migration of Peruvians and Bolivians.

The approach to education and border mobility from the Peruvian academy

Unlike Chile, Peru has been an “eminent emitter of international migration” (Alvites Sosa, 2011, p. 34). Teófilo Altamirano (n. d.) considers five phases of emigration of Peruvians abroad. The first stage occurred from 1910 to 1950, when emigration occurred mainly to Western Europe. This emigration, which was predominantly oligarchic, occurred for reasons of education, power and prestige (Altamirano, n. d.). From 1950 to 1960, when the second stage occurred, emigration to Europe increased due to the end of the Second World War and the reconstruction of the European continent; however, emigration to the United States also loomed.

The third stage, in the 1970s, was marked by the nationalist military government of Velazco Alvarado in Peru, which caused the emigration of “upper-middle-class Peruvians” (Altamirano, n. d., p. 2), the reduction in immigration and emigration to countries of the communist bloc due to the tendency of the military government, and diplomatic and commercial openings with the countries in this bloc. Importantly, for this period, a total of 500 000 Peruvians abroad were counted, of which 300 000 resided in the United States, and the rest resided in other Latin American countries, such as Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico (Altamirano, n. d.).

The period from 1980 to 1992, during which the fourth stage occurred, was characterized by the restoration of democracy, the beginning of the economic crisis, the impoverishment of the country and the emergence of political violence in Peru. The previous emigration destinations were joined by Japan, Argentina and Chile. Altamirano (n. d.) dates the fifth period as being from 1992 onwards─a stage in which the internal conditions of the country stabilized; even so, 1 920 000 Peruvians were estimated to be abroad (Altamirano, n. d.).

Regarding the periodization proposed by Teófilo Altamirano (n. d.), the observations of Lucía Alvites Sosa (2011) must be considered. According to this author, until 2010, there were 3 056 000 Peruvians abroad, and the period from 1990 to 2007 represented “a growing and sustained trend” of emigration (Alvites Sosa, 2011, p. 35). The main destination country continued to be the United States (32.6%), followed by Spain (16.6%), Argentina (13.5%), Italy (10%), Chile (7.8%), Japan (4.2%), Venezuela (3.9%) and other countries (11.3%).

However, from the end of the second decade of the 21st century, Peru began to experience growing Venezuelan immigration. By 2015, the Venezuelan population in Peru was 2 093⁵ citizens and increased to more than half a million (Indaga, Observatorio Nacional de Política Criminal, 2022) due, among the main reasons, to the issuance of the Temporary Permit of Permanence (Aprueban lineamientos para el otorgamiento del Permiso Temporal de Permanencia para las personas de nacionalidad venezolana, 2018). Until the end of 2021, a total of 1 057 251 Venezuelan citizens were registered in Peru (more than half a million (Indaga, Observatorio Nacional de Política Criminal, 2022). Although this phenomenon should attract the attention of the Peruvian academy, this document does not focus on the dynamics of Venezuelan immigration; nevertheless, it is important to indicate that recent documents (Equilibrium-Centro para el Desarrollo Económico, 2020; Gobierno de Canadá, Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (Grade) & Unicef, 2021) have been concerned with showing the relationship between Venezuelan immigration and education in Peru, mainly in the Lima context.

The situation is similar in the border region of Tacna. In Arica and Parinacota (Chile), there are more than 30 000 resident foreigners (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas de Chile & Departamento de Extranjería y Migración, 2021). In Tacna, this figure reaches 2 887 resident foreigners (Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática [INEI], 2017).⁶ Hence, it is important to indicate that the focus of the problematization around education and border mobility should not be channeled from the same path⁷ that has demarcated the problematization in the border city of Arica. Similarly, the reduced number of immigrants residing in Tacna should not be considered because there is no problem between mobility and education in this border region. Specifically, one of the drawbacks of this research gap is related to the theoretical orientation adopted for border mobility.

Mobility─in this case border mobility─should not be understood as a transfer between two border territories (Osterling, 2018). As John Agnew (1994) noted, considering border mobility as a transfer between two border territories is a “territorial trap” (Agnew, 1994) that is as paradoxical as reifying the state territorial space as a fixed territorial scale. In this regard, it is necessary to ask where the limits of the border begin and where they end. To discuss border mobility and education in the Tacan context, an approach to mobility is required that considers various scales of mobility, various interactions and various forms of movement intersected in the mobile experience (Cresswell, 2010; 2014) of the border context. Hence, the results are presented within the framework of mobility shifts (Cresswell, 2010, 2014; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2000).

In summary, addressing the relationship between border mobility and education in the Tacna context requires the consideration of four aspects. First, Peru and Tacna lack an abundant enough international immigrant tradition to shift the problem toward the migrant variable, as has been the case in the Chilean and Arican countries. Second, the absence of an international immigrant tradition should not lead to the assumption that the problem related to the relationship between border mobility and education does not exist. Precisely, and here is the third aspect, it is considered that a theoretical refocusing of mobility is required (Cresswell, 2010, 2014) to understand the impacts of border mobility on the educational problems in the city of Tacna. Finally, as the fourth aspect, the theoretical proposal of the mobility shift (Cresswell, 2010, 2014; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2000) is chosen to frame the presentation of the results. Next, the research proposal method and the results will be given.

Method

This document is part of the research entitled “The Peruvian-Chilean border conditioning and the profile of graduation in basic education students: scope for a dialogic relationship from the Tacno-Ariqueño context”, which aimed to determine the existing relationship between the Tacno-Ariqueño border context and the profile of the graduation from basic education of students from the city of Tacna (Peru). For this research, a descriptive case study was developed (Kazez, 2009; Yin, 2009) based on semistructured interviews of educational actors, such as teachers and managers, as well as border actors mainly related to the commercial field.⁸

The criteria for the inclusion of teachers and merchants, considered for the development of the interviews, are based on the fact that teachers play a leading role in the classroom, and their perceptions can deepen both the practices and perceptions of various actors within educational institutions. The decision regarding the merchants was made because, unlike other Peruvian cities, more than a quarter of the population of the city of Tacna⁹ is dedicated to commerce and market activities (INEI, 2017). Similarly, previous research reveals the role of merchants in the border city of Tacna (Berganza Setién & Cerna Rivera, 2011; Chávez Vargas, 2022; Jiménez Palacios, 2019, 2020; Jiménez Palacios et al., 2019; Pastor Seperak & Chávez Vargas, 2022; Ponce Vargas, 2018).

Regarding the research technique, 40 semistructured interviews were conducted with both teachers and merchants in the city of Tacna. To design the interview guide, previous research was considered (Jiménez Palacios, 2019; Jiménez Palacios et al., 2019) as a conceptual basis for the organization of a priori categories in the instrument, in addition to being considered pilot tests for both teachers and merchants. Regarding the analysis technique, a content analysis was used (Bardin, 1977) based on a selective codification of the categories “sociohistorical perspectives of life”, “financial competences” and “mobility of knowledge”. For this article, an intercase analysis of seven border workers involved in the trade of the Used Clothing Fair was considered (Jiménez Palacios et al., 2019), according to Table 1.

Table 1. Characteristics and coding of cases

No.	Denomination	Commercial activity	Code
1	Merchant woman 1	Fair trader	MC1
2	Trader Woman 2	Fair trader	MC2
3	Trader Woman 3	Stroller	MC3
4	Trader Woman 4	Stroller	MC4
5	Trader Woman 5	Stroller	MC5
6	Trader Woman 6	Fair trader	MC6
7	Male merchant 1	Fair trader	VC1
Source: own elaboration

Results

This section presents two findings that contribute to shrinking the research gaps regarding border mobility and education in the Tacna region (Peru). Thus, arguably, border mobility should be assumed to occur in a complex manner instead of limiting it to migration or movement between two border territories. In this way, two findings regarding border mobility and education are considered. The first addresses interconnected mobility and its relationship with socioemotional competencies in the educational development of the children of merchants. The second refers to the mobility of knowledge and educational competences in border commercial spaces.

Interconnected mobility, care networks and socioemotional competencies

The testimonies in this section show the complex nature of border mobility. Mainly, the presence of children and family is highlighted in the interconnected nature of mobility. The presence of children is highlighted as a key element that is interconnected with border mobility, whether by building care networks or developing maternity practices in the face of the possibility of leaving them alone at home─the latter in favor of improved development of the socioemotional competencies of the children.

Leaving your children, the ugliest thing for me, apart from the fact that we had to walk a lot and be careful because there in Chile the pdi can kill you, it can catch you there and if you do not have documents and all that, it can... deport you. (MC4)

The testimony of MC4 initially warned that border mobility is an experience that transcends the simple transfer between two border territories since mobility manifests itself at different rates (Cresswell, 2012). MC4 has to be careful, which means moving slowly. Interestingly, previous research showed the different crossover rhythms of merchants. In some cases, it is hectic before crossing the border. At the time of the border crossing, such as in customs areas, the crossing should be as swift as possible; after crossing the border, the pace is calm and leisurely.

In addition, the testimony of MC4 identifies increases in the complexity of border mobility. Mobility is not only at different rates but also is interconnected (Cresswell, 2012; 2014). For a passerby¹⁰ or female merchant to cross the border can be a very different experience from the crossing experience of an agent of the Chilean Investigative Police, a tourist or another type of subject who experiences mobility. Walking, walking with care, trapping and the possibility of being deported are elements that are interconnected with the mobile experience of MC4, and they vary according to the subject who lives the mobile experience of the border. Similarly, the mobile experience of MC4 has to be understood in an interconnected manner for both human agents, such as their children or the Chilean Investigative Police, and nonhuman agents (Latour, 2005), such as documents or their absence. Hence, border mobility must be understood in an interconnected manner for both other human and nonhuman agents (Cresswell, 2010; 2014). When asking MC5 about mobility differences before and after the pandemic, he answered as follows:

(…) Before we traveled to another country and we were far from our families; instead, we are now closer to our children and our families. We are here in our country. (MC5)

The testimony of MC5 strengthens the thesis of border mobility in an interconnected sense (Cresswell, 2010). The reference to leave them (MC5) or stay away from them (MC4) supposes an effort by the children and relatives who give meaning to the border mobility of the merchants. In this way, although the children of the merchants do not cross the border, they represent a relevant element at the time of the merchants’ mobility. The mobility of mothers in the face of the immobility of their children results in the planning of a series of care networks that merchants must establish in their homes in the city of Tacna. Considering care networks with children is a tactic that addresses the risk factors related to the socioemotional skills of children.¹¹ However, leaving at home is not an exclusive activity of the walkers; in the case of MC1, the following was observed:

Oh yes and once it escaped me! Ow! I almost died! To think, where will it be? So many things that happen and think that they have been able to take it away. My daughter was four years old, and I lost her. She had gone to another fair looking at dresses (laughs). Hence, I decided to leave it at home; it is safer there. Of course, when she was one year old, I also left her and [about] that I always regret that. It was late for me, and I left her. I finished assembling and returned to pick it up. That is the beauty, right? That you could support your children. (MC1)

MC1’s testimony of supporting her children strengthens the idea of family, sons and daughters as a motive for mobility. Similarly, MC1’s testimony delves into the hypothesis of interconnected mobility since this does not only involve feelings that accompany the mobility of the trader. The interconnected nature of mobility strengthens the hypothesis regarding the need to plan care networks for children to strengthen their socioemotional skills. The decision to leave her daughter at home and the fact of quickly setting up the business to pick her up shows the absence of these networks and, thus, the development of activities that complicate and determine the mobility of MC1 to await socioemotional care. However, despite the absences and the tactics exercised for care, the traders are aware that this effort allows access to certain social rights.

Of course, this one, I was telling him that what I got as a merchant, I with four children. I have not lacked or had too much, that is, but always working every day, all day. I have made my house, single mother, but always since I was 19 years old, until I was 22 years old in another area. Since I was in my twenties, I have worked in Arica, Tacna, Arica, Tacna, and Arica, and then I have gone beyond Chile with pure commerce. (MC3)

My children (… laughs…) if I had not worked here, I would not have been able to have so many children. I could not have made them study. My daughter, at least, has a notion of this, and I know that yes, the other little girl, I encourage her slightly more... she is a model rather. Over there, a woman has caught her making clothes for Koreans, and she makes her model. In addition, she herself transforms her clothes from here, she prints it, she does it. It is very original. (MC1)

Understanding mobility as interconnected (Cresswell, 2010) clarifies the presence of the children of merchants and walkers in border mobility. Ensuring a care network or generating tactics to await them in the face of the activity are some of the practices established to reduce the risk factors against the socioemotional competencies of the children.

However, the testimonies also provide an account of motherhood practices and the possibilities of commerce for both the development of children and the maintenance of emotional ties. The case of MC3 identifies the possibility of accessing housing, whereas the case of MC1 identifies access to education and productive knowledge; this is made possible by the commercial activity of the mothers. In this way, the absences and sacrifices expressed by the merchants are not only a consequence of their border activity; they also imply the possibility of providing social rights to their children.

Yes, they did their homework there, on the board. Well, I have raised my children like this. I have not had someone to take care of them, and they also grow like that (…) I would hand him his blanket and sit him in the center; he asked for everything, and that is how I have worked with him. (MC2)

Similarly, laying a blanket in the center of the stall and seating the child supposes the consolidation of a place of learning that is inclined toward the strengthening of emotional ties despite remaining in the fair sales space. In this way, the testimony of the interviewees clarifies the education/border pair in the case of Tacna as the place of origin of border mobility. Mothers, merchants or walkers are mobilized with the constant presence of their children, which leads to the need to clarify educational problems related to mobility. On the one hand, there are reports of practices aimed at forming care networks, as well as practices that strengthen the socioemotional skills and training of children. Next, another educational aspect related to educational competencies is reported.

Mobility of knowledge, learning and educational competences

Along with care and upbringing, learning is also interconnected with the border mobility of traders, allowing the strengthening of certain competencies present in Peruvian basic education (Ministerio de Educación [Minedu], 2016). Among the selected testimonies, the details and characteristics of the mobility of knowledge, learning and educational competences are observed. When asking him about the experience of his children and the learning mobilized in the fair, MC2 answered the following:

Yes, I do not know what other things they had, but they did sell. There, on top of the board, he would stop and say, “a sun!” A sun boy’s clothes! People were piling up! This has been my youngest son. The big one is the one who has not liked it (…) You have to be good at doing the accounts and keeping the accounts too, very important. Now I realize that it is important, before I did not take importance. (MC2)

In MC2’s testimony, the mobility of a series of learnings is evidenced. Losing fear and expressing oneself in public are important skills for strengthening oral communication skills. The national curriculum (Minedu, 2016) places communication skills as a practice through which the student interacts with individuals and communities through oral language in a creative and responsible way “considering the impact of what is expressed and heard” (Minedu, 2016, p. 69). The numerical skills related to the daily routine of the trade, expressed in the testimony of the merchant, are added to this set of skills.

My daughter sold since she was little. I gave her a box, and she sold condiments. There she sold and until now she sells and knows everything, it happens to me, it reaches me. My son is the same too, but my son has stayed there (…). My daughter has also had her clients. He has also opened new clothing stores, he likes to offer and thus has earned his landladies. (MC6)

As in the testimony of MC2, the latter strengthens the evidence of the mobility of learning and knowledge from childhood. Regarding numerical competencies, the Ministry of Education considers the competence to solve problems of quantity where the student solves problems that require him to “build and understand notions of quantity, number, number systems” (Minedu, 2016, p. 133) to give meaning to this knowledge in everyday situations. The fair, as a place of learning, mobilizes both numerical and communicative skills and abilities, as well as skills related to entrepreneurship, as seen in the testimony by MC6. Similarly, the possibility of acquiring skills enables sons and daughters to perform in both their professional field and the field of business. When consulting the merchants, they referred to the following:

Interviewer: You told me that your children are professionals and are engaged in other types of activity apart from business, right?

VC1: So it is. Of course, they have the initiative of the business; therefore, they can work in the business as in their profession.

MC1: They are not all the same. In the same way I have brought them all; rather, I believe that the latter are more merchants. Sometimes the little girl comes and helps me; they will do their business there at home, I do not know (laughs). It is a good thing, sometimes I think that if something happens to me, they already know how to survive.

Thus, mobilized learning allows sons and daughters to forge a way to address future economic productivity in adult life by either accompanying professional performance or forging it as a life project. This learning is closely related to the competence responsible for managing the economic resources of the Peruvian national curriculum (Minedu, 2016). This competence, which has also been evidenced in previous research (Ticona Cohaíla et al., 2023), supposes the ability to manage resources from “a critical stance on their management” (Minedu, 2016, p. 117) in an informed manner as is responsible. This competence implies the strengthening of certain capacities, such as understanding how the economic and financial system works, as well as decision making around these capacities. Thus, the mobility of knowledge and learning is manifested through communicative and numerical skills and abilities, in addition to entrepreneurial skills and knowledge about the development of the business itself.

Ah, my daughter does. He knows the models, the price he has to sell. There are some who bring the first time and do not know. On the other hand, we already know, for example, small pants, and you already know how much it costs. You already know how to sell, what outfits, the price. I have years now, I already have experience. Give thanks, even if it takes me a sun or two. That is why I also have my landlords who get along quite a bit. (MC6)

As noted above, the mobility of knowledge is also expressed in business learning, in this case the sale of used clothing. Similarly, importantly, note that knowledge, in addition to being transmitted from mothers to daughters, can also be mobilized between peers, that is, between merchants. However, due to the length of the document, no reference is made to the mobility of commercial knowledge between peers.

In summary, it is important to note that border mobility is a phenomenon that transcends the transfer between two international territories. Innovating the border mobility approach, mainly as interconnected mobility (Cresswell, 2010), makes visible those actors who do not cross the border but determine mobility or, in other words, mobilize together with the mobile practices of traders, and you will walk them. In this way, the border mobility of merchants and walkers is accompanied by the mobility of two relevant educational topics: socioemotional and educational competencies (see Table 2).

Table 2. What competencies accompany border mobility?

Socioemotional skills
Border mobility should lead us to consider two aspects for preventing risk factors related to the socioemotional competencies of schoolchildren, as follows:	On the one hand, the need to plan care networks that allow us to maintain the emotional bond with daughters and sons is visible at the time of either crossing the border or trading at the fairgrounds.
	On the other hand, maternity practices are made visible both for the maintenance of emotional bonds through spatial strategies of the fair itself, as well as the formation of life projects in the children.
Educational competences
The mobile practices of merchants and female walkers show the need to deepen the relationship it has with three educational competencies considered by the Ministry of Education (Minedu, 2016).	Competence 7. Communicates orally in their mother tongue.
	Competence 23. Solves quantity problems.
	Competence 19. Responsible management of financial resources.
Source: own elaboration

Conclusions

Tacna and Arica are two cities that, both daily and historically, have shared exchange activities. Starting in 1929, the daily relations between both cities assumed an exchange across their national border limits. The daily and historical relationships between both cities, anchored under the same logic of vertical Andean territoriality, explain the peculiarities of the northern region of Chile and the southern region of Peru, for example, in terms of their migratory characteristics.

In the Chilean case, starting in the 1990s, immigration from the South American region increased steadily, particularly for Peruvian and Bolivian citizens. Unlike the cities in central Chile, the cities in the north have an immigrant population of both Peruvian and Bolivian that are predominantly from the Andean highlands. Thus, when discussing the problem of education in the northern border area of Chile, the issue of the migrant population has been made visible mainly in relation to the school curriculum, coexistence among students and deficiencies in inclusion promoted by teachers.

The migratory approach in relation to the “education/border” problem is an issue that can hardly be transferred to the Peruvian border scene, mainly because Peru, unlike Chile, has presented an emigrant rather than an immigrant trend. Therefore, a research gap in relation to the problem of education on the southern border of Peru is identified. The main drawback in addressing this research gap is how the mobility problem is theoretically approached.

The mobility that occurred between the border pair Tacno-Ariqueño must become more complex beyond a migratory perspective and with respect to the transfers between border territories. When assuming mobility (Cresswell, 2010, 2014; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2000) and an interconnected approach (Cresswell, 2010; 2014), border mobility shows the need to deepen the socioemotional competencies of schoolchildren and three key educational competencies. Regarding socioemotional competencies, deepening the tactics and practices that walkers and merchants develop to strengthen networks of care and support in maternity practices is necessary. Among the educational competencies, the emphasis is on communicative, mathematical and entrepreneurial competences─in tune with the proposal of the Ministry of Education of Peru (Minedu, 2016).

Finally, two issues are important to note. The first is the possibility that the approach to mobility assumed in this report can also be extrapolated to the North Chilean border context considering other forms of mobility beyond migration and relocation. The second is that other South American border pairs, such as Corumbá (Brazil) and Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia), face the same theoretical problems (Golin & Assumpção, 2017; Machado García Arf, 2016). That is, the “education/borders” problem is assumed from the migratory reception of a city, in this case, the Brazilian city of Corumbá, with respect to its border peer, the Bolivian city of Puerto Quijarro. Thus, the findings of this document suggest a way to approach the “education/border” problem from a city traditionally viewed as the source of migrants, be it Tacna (Peru), Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia) or other cases in the region.

Acknowledgments

This document is part of the research project “The Peruvian-Chilean border conditioning and the profile of graduation in basic education students: scope for a dialogic relationship from the Tacno-Ariqueño context” financed by the Vice President for Research of the Private University of Tacna (Peru).

We thank the Vice President for Research of the Private University of Tacna (Peru) for financing this proposal. The authors also thank their colleagues at the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Quality Education Management (Gescal) for their valuable contributions to the development of this research.

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Notes

¹ Guizardi and collaborators already warned about the need to consider the experience of motherhood of those women who migrate from Tacna to the north of Chile, an element that also discussed “the academic consensus around the acceptance of physical distance as a sine qua non characteristic of transnational families” (Guizardi et al., 2019, p. 94).

² Murra pointed out that the vertical archipelago model is characterized by the fact that each ethnic group made an effort to control a maximum of ecological floors and niches to take advantage of the resources that were only there, which were many days away from the center of power. Although the bulk of the dense population remained in the highlands, the ethnic authority maintained permanent colonies settled on the periphery to control distant resources. These ethnic “islands”, physically separated but maintaining social contact and continuous traffic with their nucleus, formed an archipelago, a settlement pattern that was, according to Murra, typically Andean. The inhabitants of the peripheral “islands” were part of the same universe with those of the nucleus, sharing a single social and economic organization. (Llagostera, 2010, p. 284)

³ What in Peru would be called primary level education.

⁴ It is important to note that this can be explained and discussed using previous evidence. “The introversion on the part of the first [traditional migrants] can be interpreted as a protection mechanism, by virtue of being inserted in a country that historically perceives them as enemies, as a result of the events that confronted Chile, with its countries [Peru and Bolivia] during the War of the Pacific. A significant number of students prefer to avoid stigmatization, hiding their origin and mimicking Chilean Aymaras” (Bustos González & Pizarro Pizarro, 2017, p. 19).

⁵ This figure was surpassed by the population from Bolivia with 3 333 citizens and Colombia with 2 464 citizens (Indaga, Observatorio Nacional de Política Criminal, 2022).

⁶ Regarding recent migration, the Survey of the Venezuelan Population (Enpove, INEI, 2022) registered a total of 1 655 homes with Venezuelan population for the Tacna region (INEI, 2022).

⁷ That is, to analyze the educational problem of borders from migration.

⁸ The descriptive case study is a design that aims to present a phenomenon in its context (Kazez, 2009), unlike the explanatory case study that seeks causal relationships or the exploratory case study that seeks to generate questions for further research. Also critical to emphasize is the importance of the qualitative approach, through interviews, for this research. As Álvaro rightly refers to Gaínza Veloso (2017), the interview is an information production technique that expresses “ways of thinking and feeling of the interviewed subjects, including all the aspects of depth associated with their assessments, motivations, desires, beliefs and interpretation schemes” (Gaínza Veloso, 2017, p. 220).

⁹ To address the urban space of the city of Tacna, the districts of Tacna, Alto de la Alianza, Ciudad Nueva and Coronel Gregorio Albarracín are considered. Thus, in the city, 27.2% of the population is dedicated to service work as vendors in shops and markets (INEI, 2017).

¹⁰ They are called pasera or ant “because the people who cross the border are transporting the merchandise little by little. They cross the border often, passing small numbers each time” (Berganza Setién & Cerna Rivera, 2011, p. 88).

¹¹ Socioemotional competencies, such as self-regulation, interpersonal relationships or good judgment, are elements that can affect both learning and the health of schoolchildren (Dirección Regional de Educación de Lima Metropolitana, 2021).

Ricardo Jiménez Palacios
Peruvian. PhD candidate in social sciences at the Universidad de Chile and fellow at the Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social (Coes, Chile). He is currently an academic and researcher at the Universidad Privada de Tacna (UPT, Peru). Research lines: border studies, border mobility, epistemology. Recent publication: Jiménez Palacios, R., Berríos Manzur, Y. L., Mamani Huanca, D. Y., Zamata Mamani, M. A. & Aquino Ccama, F. K. (2022). La movilidad de las comunidades sur andinas frente al derecho constitucional peruano. Estudio de caso de las comunidades de Higuerani y Camilaca. Diálogo Andino, (68). http://dialogoandino.cl/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/15_Jimenez-V2.pdf

Mariela Irene Bobadilla Quispe
Peruvian. PhD in accounting and financial sciences from the Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann, postdoctoral in philosophy and research from the Universidad Nacional Experimental de Yaracuy (Venezuela). Professor at the la Universidad Privada de Tacna. Research lines: accounting and financial sciences, educational sciences. Recent publication: Bobadilla Quispe, M. I. (2023). Influencia de la auditoría social en la responsabilidad social de las universidades públicas. Editorial Navegante.

Hugo Cirilo Calizaya Calizaya
Peruvian. PhD in education with a major in educational management from the Universidad Privada de Tacna. Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Quality Education Management of the Escuela de Postgrado of Universidad Privada de Tacna, Peru (Gescal-UPT). Professor at the Facultad de Ingeniería of the Universidad Privada de Tacna. Research lines: educational sciences, higher education. Recent publication: Calizaya Calizaya, H. (2013, January-June). Diseño de un modelo de evaluación del desempeño docente basado en la metodología causal. Veritas et Scientia, 2(1), 63-68. https://doi.org/10.47796/ves.v2i1.263

Luis Alfredo Fernández Vizcarra
Peruvian. Master of Science in Project Engineering Management, with a second specialty in Research Statistics, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa. Research Coordinator of the Graduate School and professor at the Universidad Privada de Tacna, Peru. Research lines: applied research, management of creative and efficient organizational solutions, organizational knowledge management, systems engineering, and social, demographic and economic projects. Recent publication: Vargas Vargas, D. R., Escate Quispe, K. A., Cutipa Jimenez, J. M. & Fernández Vizcarra, L. A. (2022, January-June). Evidencias métricas de la escala de miedo percibido relacionado con la pandemia COVID-19 en adultos de Tacna. PsiqueMag, 11(1), 42-54. https://doi.org/10.18050/psiquemag.v11i1.2756

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