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“Nobody should experience this alone”: caregiving legal consciousness in Chile between family and welfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2026
Abstract
Why do poor caregivers resist rights-based framings of their situation even when directly exposed to institutionalized rights discourses? Drawing on 44 in-depth interviews with caregivers, care recipients, and officials from Chile Cuida, a state assistance program grounded in the right-to-care framework, this article examines the rights consciousness of long-term, intensive caregivers in Santiago, Chile. We find that, despite significant political exposure to rights discourses, caregivers consistently frame their experiences in terms of familial duty rather than entitlement. Building on rights-consciousness literature, we identify three mechanisms that explain this pattern: cultural incompatibility, whereby caregivers resist framings that appear to contradict familial obligations; familial overspilling, whereby family-based relational expectations are projected onto bureaucratic actors; and bridging strategies, whereby caregivers invoke alternative cultural sources of entitlement – particularly notions of state duty toward the poor – to justify receiving assistance without challenging familial dominance. We argue that discursive exposure to rights frameworks is insufficient when it confronts deeply settled familial cultural repertoires, with significant implications for care policy in the region.
Resumen
¿Por qué los cuidadores en situación de vulnerabilidad resisten los marcos de derechos para interpretar su situación, incluso cuando están directamente expuestos a discursos institucionales sobre derechos? A partir de 44 entrevistas en profundidad con cuidadores, personas en situación de dependencia y funcionarios del programa Chile Cuida – un programa de asistencia estatal fundado en el marco del derecho al cuidado – este artículo examina la conciencia de derechos de cuidadores intensivos de larga duración en Santiago de Chile. Encontramos que, pese a una exposición política a discursos de derechos, los cuidadores enmarcan consistentemente sus experiencias en términos de deber familiar. A partir de la literatura sobre conciencia de derechos, identificamos tres mecanismos que explican este patrón: la incompatibilidad cultural, mediante la cual los cuidadores resisten marcos de referencia que perciben como contradictorios con sus obligaciones familiares; la infiltración familiar, mediante el cual las expectativas relacionales propias del ámbito familiar se proyectan sobre los actores burocráticos; y las estrategias de compatibilización, mediante las cuales los cuidadores invocan fuentes culturales alternativas de titularidad – en particular, la noción de que el Estado tiene un deber con los más pobres – para justificar la recepción de asistencia sin cuestionar la primacía familiar. Argumentamos que la exposición discursiva a marcos de derechos resulta insuficiente cuando se enfrenta a repertorios culturales de la familia profundamente arraigados, con implicancias relevantes para las políticas de cuidado en la región.
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- © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Law and Society Association.
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