Assessment of Barriers to Access Public Services for Immigrants in Ecuador using a NeutroAlgebra-based Model

Abstract

As in other countries, public services in Ecuador are of great importance to ensure the effective functioning of society. Among these services, we have public housing, health, and education. These services are financed by the public treasury, which proceeds from taxes to citizens residing in the country, to specifically benefit these citizens. However, 2.21% of the Ecuadorian population is immigrant, mainly from Colombia and Peru, with a marked increase from Venezuela. This paper aims to analyze the situation of immigrants in Ecuador, in terms of theaccess to public services. Thus, 200 immigrants from Latin American and Caribbean countries who arrived in the Ecuadorian territory were interviewed in the last 4 years. We identified this sector of migration as the most vulnerable and, therefore, the greatest interest to our research. For this purpose, we use a new theory called NeutroAlgebra. NeutroAlgebra is an algebra that has at least one NeutroOperation or one NeutroAxiom, where some cases are indeterminate. Although NeutroAlgebra may seem to be only a mathematical theory with no practical application, there is a recent model of application of this theory in the study of immigrant barriers to public health services in Chile. A variant of this model is the one that we apply in our study because it has proven its usefulness.

Keywords

• public services
• migration
• neutroalgebra
• neutrooperation
• prospector function