The paper presents an ethnographical case study concerning Peruvian migrants in Arica (Chile), undertaken in three urban areas: the International Bus Station, the Agro-market, and Areneros and Coraceros Camps. After discussing the methodological strategies, we raise questions on how the border and the spatiality have been interpreted in the migratory studies. We will also situate Arica in the Chilean-Peruvian border territory, explaining some of the historical processes that determined the 'cultural configurations' of the city. The ethnographic sections will describe the facilities and surroundings of the International Terminal, observing the migratory circulation that characterizes it; the municipal Agro-market, approaching the labour niches that the migrants occupy; and the camps, in which we observe a dynamic of partial fixation of the migrants. The final remarks will offer some theoretical debates that resize the ethnography.