Late-career international migration and reproductive work. A comparison between Peruvian and Ukrainian women in the Southern Europe

Research on the relationship between reproductive work and women´s life trajectories including the experience of labour migration has mainly focused on the case of relatively young mothers who leave behind, or later re-join, their children. While it is true that most women migrate at a younger age, there are a significant number of cases of men and women who move abroad for labour purposes at a more advanced stage, undertaking a late-career migration. This is still an under-estimated and under-researched sub-field that uncovers a varied range of issues, including the global organization of reproductive work and the employment of migrant women as domestic workers late in their lives. By pooling the findings of two qualitative studies, this article focuses on Peruvian and Ukrainian women who seek employment in Spain and Italy when they are well into their forties, or older. A commonality the two groups of women share is that, independently of their level of education and professional experience, more often than not they end up as domestic and care workers. The article initially discusses the reasons for late-career female migration, taking into consideration the structural and personal determinants that have affected Peruvian and Ukrainian women’s careers in their countries of origin and settlement. After this, the focus is set on the characteristics of domestic employment at later life, on the impact on their current lives, including the transnational family organization, and on future labour and retirement prospects. Apart from an evaluation of objective working and living conditions, we discuss women’s personal impressions of being domestic workers in the context of their occupational experiences and family commitments. In this regard, women report varying levels of personal and professional satisfaction, as well as different patterns of continuity-discontinuity in their work and family lives, and of optimism towards the future. Divergences could be, to some extent, explained by the effect of migrants´ transnational social practices and policies of states.

Renta feudal, ejercicio del poder y diferenciación social campesina en el marco del señorío del cabildo salmantino en la Edad Media

El presente trabajo analiza la evolución del señorío eclesiástico en el largo plazo, para sumar al conocimiento de las formas señoriales de la Extremadura leonesa. Consideramos específicamente el caso del cabildo catedralicio salmantino entre los siglos XII y XV. Buscamos demostrar que no poseyó idéntica estructura durante todo el período y que sus transformaciones se explican por una compleja conjunción de variables. Dichas transformaciones incidieron sobre las estructuras sociales del agro, en especial sobre el desarrollo de procesos de diferenciación social campesina. Demostramos que la forma concreta en que se realizaba la renta podía alterar las estructuras sociales de las comunidades y que el desarrollo de las relaciones sociales asalariadas se encontraba muy vinculado a las coyunturas económicas y a las posibilidades y límites de la gestión señorial. Finalmente, ponemos de relieve que la transformación social no siempre fue irreversible y que su consolidación dependió de la incapacidad de los señores de ejercer sus poderes políticos.

Return Migration in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian population: motivations, strategies and discourses

This article analyses the motivations for return migration among the Ecuadorians and Bolivians who, after living in Spain, returned to their countries of origin during the economic crisis that started in 2008. From the analysis of 22 interviews in-depth which took place in Ecuador and 38 in Bolivia to women, men and young people from migrant families, this decision-making process is shown to be embedded into a gendered dynamics of relationships. Particular detail is given to affective and economic elements that had an influence on the decision to return, as well as to the strategies deployed to project their readjustment back in origin. Males and females occupy differential positions within the family, work and social circle, their expectations being built in a gendered manner. Despite the fact migration has brought women greater economic power within the family group, their reintegration upon return redefines their role as main managers in the household and the dynamics that allow their social reproduction. Men, for their part, aspire to refresh their role as providers in spite of their frail labour position upon return. Social mobility for females is passed on through generations by a strong investment on education for their daughters and sons, while for males this mobility revolves around setting up family businesses and around their demonstrative abilities.

Looking for Determinants of Ontological Security in the Spain of the Crisis

The concept of ontological security has a remarkable echo in the current sociology to describe emotional status of men of late modernity. However, the concept created by Giddens in the eighties has been little used in empirical research covering various sources of risk or uncertainty. In this paper, a scale for ontological security is proposed. To do this, we start from the results of a research focused on the relationship between risk, uncertainty and vulnerability in the context of the economic crisis in Spain. These results were produced through nine focus groups and a telephone survey with standardized questionnaire applied to a national sample of 2,408 individuals over 18 years. This work is divided into three main sections. In the fi rst, a scale has been built from the results of the application of different items present in the questionnaire used. The second part explores the relationships of the scale obtained with the variables further approximate the emotional dimensions of individuals. The third part observes the variables that contribute to changes in the scale: These variables show the structural feature of the ontological security.

La incertidumbre amorosa contemporánea. Estrategias de los jóvenes

Este artículo explora las fuentes de incertidumbre en la experiencia contemporánea del amor y las estrategias que los jóvenes españoles ponen en práctica para afrontarla. Para ello, se utiliza el material empírico obtenido a través de la realización de 31 entrevistas en profundidad a adultos jóvenes entre 25 y 35 años de edad, residentes en Madrid. Su análisis ha permitido identificar una serie de estrategias que apuntan hacia la extensión de cierta “normatividad de la cautela” en la experiencia de los vínculos amorosos: a) La “disciplina emocional” para controlar la imagen que se otorga de los propios sentimientos, b) la concatenación de emparejamientos, c) la priorización del propio “yo” en las expectativas y d) la búsqueda de fórmulas alternativas al modelo de pareja monógama tradicional. Se analiza, además, cómo cada una de estas estrategias se hace plausible en función de determinados contextos y posiciones de clase y género.

El discernimiento de espíritus en las periferias cristianas: gozo, pactos y poderosos entre aborígenes evangélicos del Chaco Argentino

El discernimiento de espíritus ha sido a lo largo de la historia del cristianismo un mecanismo fundamental para el control del acceso al carisma. Su desarrollo ha estado profundamente ligado a los cambios en la estructura social de las iglesias. Por ello buscamos aportar nuevas miradas sobre este dispositivo, analizándolo en el contexto de las periferias cristianas. Específicamente centraremos nuestro análisis en las iglesias evangélicas aborígenes mocoví del suroeste de la provincia del Chaco en Argentina. Nos aproximaremos a estas cuestiones a partir del análisis a la estructura social de estas iglesias, sus concepciones sobre los vínculos con las potencias no-humanas, la gestión de salud y enfermedad y la experiencia del culto.

Fronteras en construcción: Diferenciación social y desterritorialización en el Sur ibérico (siglos IX-VI a.C.)

Durante las tres últimas décadas, numerosos/as arqueólogos/as han discutido extensamente sobre el ritual funerario original de las poblaciones del sur ibérico entre los siglos ix y vi a.c., esto es, cremación o inhumación. Este debate está además conectado con la existencia o no de complejidad social antes de la llegada fenicia, con la aparición de una élite “orientalizada” y con la adopción de nuevos objetos y prácticas por las poblaciones locales. En este artículo hago uso del concepto deleuziano de “desterritorialización” y lo asocio con el de “frontera” desarrollado por anzaldúa para interpretar la sociedad del sur ibérico. Para ello, analizo la evidencia funeraria indígena y cuestiono la división estricta entre cremación e inhumación en la región; así como examino la profundidad y significado de los cambios funerarios en las comunidades locales.