Immigration to Chile has contributed to the demographics and the history of this South American nation. Chile is a country whose inhabitants are mainly of Spain (mostly of Andalusian and Basque origin) and Native American, mostly descended from Mapuche peoples. A moderate numbers of European immigrants settled in Chile during the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly Spanish, as well as Germans, British, French, Southern Slavs, and Italians who have made additional contributions to the racial complex of Chile. However, this immigration was never in a large scale, contrasting with mass migrations that characterized Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil, and therefore, anthropologically, its impact with lesser consequence. At the same time, some separate cultural aspects, such as German cakes, British afternoon tea, and Italian pasta, were preserved. The fusion is also visible in the architecture of Chilean cities. This intermarriage and mixture of cultures and races have shaped the present society and culture of Chile.

Settlers from Europe came from France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, and Croatia, among others. Although significant numbers of Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese also arrived. Today, most immigrants come from other American countries. The largest immigrant group comes from Venezuela, followed by Peru, Haiti, Colombia and most recently Nicaragua. One of the main factors that has driven this migration has been the country's relatively stable political history, compared with the rest of Latin America and the significant growth of the Chilean economy in recent decades.

Spaniards were the most relevant group among European immigration to Chile. The largest ethnic group in Chile arrived from Spain during the colonial age, prior to 1810. Too, until the 18th century, the country experienced massive immigration from the Basque Country and Navarre, reaching 27% of the total Chilean colonial population, as well as Portuguese and Italian immigrants who accompanied the Spanish Empire. The situation changed for the early 20th century Chile was not a particularly attractive destination for migrants simply because it was far from Europe, and reaching such a remote place was difficult. A situation recognized in the census of 1907, census which recorded the percentage of Europeans versus the total population of Chile (2.2%). In other counts, with only immigrants born in their countries of origin, and without counting their descendants, came to represent 4.1% of the national population, with the exception of Magallanes Region, where 1/4 people had been born abroad, mostly on the European continent.

However, some relevant groups arrived anyway, especially for the colonization of Araucanía, and in search of luck in mining activity in the north of the country. In any case, this immigration does not compare to that of the South American Atlantic countries. Between 1851 and 1924 Chile only received the 0,5% of the European immigration flow to Latin America, against 46% of Argentina, 33% of Brazil, 14% of Cuba, and 4% of Uruguay. This was because most of the migration occurred across the Atlantic, not the Pacific, and that this migration occurred mostly before the construction of the Panama Canal. Also, Europeans preferred to stay in countries closer to their homelands instead of taking that long tour across the Straits of Magellan or crossing the Andes.

Although the majority of European immigrants during the first half of the 20th century came from Spain and Italy, others came in smaller numbers from other European countries including the Caucasus. Jews arrived in the early part of the 20th century, fleeing pogroms in Russia and in the mid-20th century from Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the former nations of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, also Germany, fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s and Communism in the 1950s.

Clearly, Spanish immigration was the most important during the colonial period. Since Chile became an independent republic, Spanish immigration is estimated at 40,000 people settling between 1880 and 1940. The Spanish Civil War spurred some 3,000 people to immigrate to Chile at the end of the 1930s, primarily being Catalan and Basque. The majority embarked for Chile on the ship Winnipeg thanks to Pablo Neruda, the Chilean delegate sent to France to take care of the pertinent negotiations. Almost 11,000 Spaniards also arrived in Araucanía between 1883 and 1901, after the Occupation of Araucanía. These colonists were given lands in the Chilean Central Valley and their descendants are principally found in Temuco, Concepción, and Ercilla. In 1903, a fleet of 88 Canarian families—400 persons—arrived in Budi Lake, Chile, that currently have more than 1,000 descendants, as a response to the government's call to populate this region and signed contracts for the benefit of a private company. While many Canarians obeyed their service, some of those who disobeyed the provisions of repopulation tried to escape their service and were arrested, and the indigenous Mapuche people took pity on the plight of these Canarians who were established on their former lands. The Mapuches welcomed them and joined their demonstrations in the so-called "revolt of the Canarians", and many Canarians integrated into Mapuche population to add the large mestizo population that exists in Chile.

Today, the Spanish colony continues to be the most significant in the country, having its own football (soccer) club, Unión Española and more than 80 institutions of varying purpose throughout Chile (charitable, sports, philanthropic, social, etc.). It is estimated that some 400,000 Chileans are descendants of Spanish immigrants who came to Chile during the 20th century, more than 100,000 descending from the Spanish who settled in Araucanía.

Estimates of the number of Chileans with Basque ancestry currently range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,700,000). The Basque community in Chile is large, visible, and has existed since the 16th century. Basque immigration can be divided into historical periods: the discovery, foundation, and colonial period; the wave of immigration in the 18th century; and the recent immigration period (19th and 20th centuries). A substantial number of traders from the Basque country arrived between 1750 and 1800. These Basque immigrants prospered and married the daughters of the old commissioned officers who came originally from the south of Spain, making them landlords of economic, social, and political power, which has given them a certain preeminence.