Representaciones y discursos locales sobre la "otredad extrema"

En el marco de un proyecto de investigación enfocado hacia el estudio de las relaciones interculturales y construcción de alteridad con respecto a inmigrantes extranjeros de origen boliviano y asiático en la sociedad local, esta ponencia tiene como finalidad presentar y poner en discusión algunos hallazgos surgidos de una primera aproximación al objeto de estudio. En particular enfocaremos sobre las representaciones presentes en el discurso de la prensa local respecto de los migrantes chinos. Se trata de un abordaje realizado a partir de algunas herramientas del Análisis Crítico de Discurso y cuyo objetivo fue registrar las modalidades de representación del colectivo chino en los medios de comunicación locales. En tal sentido, el acercamiento analítico al discurso mediático nos ha permitido detectar algunas correspondencias en la construcción de categorías de distinción y clasificación de la alteridad entre los medios de prensa analizados. Estas categorías, definidas como construcciones simbólicas productoras de sentido, tienen la capacidad de representar al colectivo chino a partir de la distinción de elementos culturales que lo visibilizan dentro de la sociedad receptora como "otro". De esta manera, entendemos que la difusión mediática de categorías clasificatorias en tanto atribución de determinadas características culturales hacia el colectivo chino, contribuye a una representación esencializada de "ellos" en términos de "otredad extrema"

Silencios coloniales, silencios micropolíticos. Memorias de violencias y dignidades mapuche en Santiago de Chile

Los silencios no solo componen los extractos inenarrables de las experiencias del dolor, también pueden operar como agencia subalterna bajo la posibilidad de negociaciones y acomodamientos en una realidad desigualmente estructurada. Ello implica pensar las modalidades políticas de los inferiorizados desde dinámicas cotidianas y sigilosas, no siempre expuestas en lo público mediante la arenga. En este sentido, las siguientes líneas buscan adentrarse e interpretar las cotidianidades laborales, racialmente constituidas, de migrantes mapuche que debieron sortear la continuidad colonial en Santiago de Chile

Interculturalidad, trabajo y migración en el Gran La Plata

En la presente ponencia hacemos referencia a procesos de migración, trabajo e inserción en la sociedad local por parte de migrantes de origen boliviano a la ciudad de La Plata y Gran La Plata. Los mismos implican formación de identidades étnico-nacionales y procesos de auto-identificación e identificación desde el afuera en situaciones de contacto intercultural y precariedad legal y laboral. Consideramos que quienes migran comparten, además de la experiencia migratoria, pautas culturales de su lugar de origen que constituyen una matriz, la cual, al ponerse en acto en la relación con agentes de la sociedad receptora, actualiza diferencias entonces disponibles para su utilización en la construcción de estereotipos presentes en la relación entre propios y extraños. A la vez se produce un proceso de apropiación de valores y prácticas de la sociedad receptora, que entendemos son seleccionados -entre otras cosas- para permitir la comunicación y el fluir de la cotidianeidad.Es desde esta perspectiva que buscamos comprender los procesos de inserción, segmentación, aceptación, rechazo y reinvención de identidad por parte de inmigrantes y locales en un contexto periurbano

Representaciones y discursos locales sobre la "otredad extrema"

En el marco de un proyecto de investigación enfocado hacia el estudio de las relaciones interculturales y construcción de alteridad con respecto a inmigrantes extranjeros de origen boliviano y asiático en la sociedad local, esta ponencia tiene como finalidad presentar y poner en discusión algunos hallazgos surgidos de una primera aproximación al objeto de estudio. En particular enfocaremos sobre las representaciones presentes en el discurso de la prensa local respecto de los migrantes chinos. Se trata de un abordaje realizado a partir de algunas herramientas del Análisis Crítico de Discurso y cuyo objetivo fue registrar las modalidades de representación del colectivo chino en los medios de comunicación locales. En tal sentido, el acercamiento analítico al discurso mediático nos ha permitido detectar algunas correspondencias en la construcción de categorías de distinción y clasificación de la alteridad entre los medios de prensa analizados. Estas categorías, definidas como construcciones simbólicas productoras de sentido, tienen la capacidad de representar al colectivo chino a partir de la distinción de elementos culturales que lo visibilizan dentro de la sociedad receptora como "otro". De esta manera, entendemos que la difusión mediática de categorías clasificatorias en tanto atribución de determinadas características culturales hacia el colectivo chino, contribuye a una representación esencializada de "ellos" en términos de "otredad extrema"

Interculturalidad, trabajo y migración en el Gran La Plata

En la presente ponencia hacemos referencia a procesos de migración, trabajo e inserción en la sociedad local por parte de migrantes de origen boliviano a la ciudad de La Plata y Gran La Plata. Los mismos implican formación de identidades étnico-nacionales y procesos de auto-identificación e identificación desde el afuera en situaciones de contacto intercultural y precariedad legal y laboral. Consideramos que quienes migran comparten, además de la experiencia migratoria, pautas culturales de su lugar de origen que constituyen una matriz, la cual, al ponerse en acto en la relación con agentes de la sociedad receptora, actualiza diferencias entonces disponibles para su utilización en la construcción de estereotipos presentes en la relación entre propios y extraños. A la vez se produce un proceso de apropiación de valores y prácticas de la sociedad receptora, que entendemos son seleccionados -entre otras cosas- para permitir la comunicación y el fluir de la cotidianeidad.Es desde esta perspectiva que buscamos comprender los procesos de inserción, segmentación, aceptación, rechazo y reinvención de identidad por parte de inmigrantes y locales en un contexto periurbano

Representaciones y discursos locales sobre la "otredad extrema"

En el marco de un proyecto de investigación enfocado hacia el estudio de las relaciones interculturales y construcción de alteridad con respecto a inmigrantes extranjeros de origen boliviano y asiático en la sociedad local, esta ponencia tiene como finalidad presentar y poner en discusión algunos hallazgos surgidos de una primera aproximación al objeto de estudio. En particular enfocaremos sobre las representaciones presentes en el discurso de la prensa local respecto de los migrantes chinos. Se trata de un abordaje realizado a partir de algunas herramientas del Análisis Crítico de Discurso y cuyo objetivo fue registrar las modalidades de representación del colectivo chino en los medios de comunicación locales. En tal sentido, el acercamiento analítico al discurso mediático nos ha permitido detectar algunas correspondencias en la construcción de categorías de distinción y clasificación de la alteridad entre los medios de prensa analizados. Estas categorías, definidas como construcciones simbólicas productoras de sentido, tienen la capacidad de representar al colectivo chino a partir de la distinción de elementos culturales que lo visibilizan dentro de la sociedad receptora como "otro". De esta manera, entendemos que la difusión mediática de categorías clasificatorias en tanto atribución de determinadas características culturales hacia el colectivo chino, contribuye a una representación esencializada de "ellos" en términos de "otredad extrema"

Waged domestic work in Argentina: the regulation of care provision

This paper addresses the condition of domestic work in Argentina, in a perspective that draws from the literature on care work. In this approach, domestic work can be interpreted as one of the mercantile forms in which care work is socially organized, due to the persistence of the traditional sexual division of labor and the weakness of public policies. From these considerations, I develop a quantitative study on the levels of informality, precarity, and wage inequality that characterize domestic work in that country. Thereafter, I discuss the main measures adopted by the Argentine government since 2003, with the goal of reducing legal discrimination of domestic workers and promoting their formalization. On this basis, the paper highlights the advances in the recognition of domestic workers’ labor rights, while emphasizing how social and cultural restraints still permeate labor relations in this sector.

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.

Ecuadorian migration and family strategies of social mobility: dialectic relation between emotional and financial capital

This text deals with transnational strategies of social mobility in Ecuadorian migrant households in Spain. We apply the capital accumulation model (Moser, 2009) for this purpose. The main target of this article is, beyond thinking in terms of capital stock and accumulation, the analysis in depth of the dynamics of the different types of capital, that is to say, how they interact with each other in the framework of the social mobility strategies of the migrants and their families. We are bringing into light the way some households adopt investing decisions in capitals that don't translate into any addition or earnings in all cases, on the contrary, concentrating all their efforts on the accumulation of a certain asset they may, in some cases, lead to a loss of another. We will concentrate our analysis primarily on the dynamics between the physical and financial capital and the social and emotional capital, showing the tensions produced between these two types of assets. At the same time, we will highlight how migrants negotiate their family strategies of social mobility in the transnational area. Our study is based in empirical material obtained from qualitative fieldwork (in-depth interviews) with families of migrants in the urban district of Turubamba Bajo -(south of Quito) and in Madrid. A series of households were selected where interviews were carried out in the country of origin as well as in the context of immigration, with different family members, analysing the transnational social and economic strategies of families of migrant members. Family members of migrants established in Spain were interviewed in Quito, as well as key informants in the district (school teachers, nursery members of the staff, etc.). The research was framed within the projects "Impact of migration on the development: gender and transnationalism", Ministry of Science and Innovation (SEJ2007/63179) (Laura Oso, dir. 2007-2010),"Gender, transnationalism and intergenerational strategies of social mobility", Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FEM2011/26210) (Laura Oso, dir. 201-1-2015) and “Gender, Crossed Mobilities and Transnational Dynamics”, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FEM2015-67164).

The elderly care and domestic services sector during the recent economic crisis. The case of Italy, Spain and France.

Over the past ten years in Italy, Spain and France, the demographic pressure and the increasing women’s participation in labour market have fuelled the expansion of the private provision of domestic and care services. In order to ensure the difficult balance between affordability, quality and job creation, each countries’ response has been different. France has developed policies to sustain the demand side introducing instruments such as vouchers and fiscal schemes, since the mid of the 2000s. Massive public funding has contributed to foster a regular market of domestic and care services and France is often presented as a “best practices” of those policies aimed at encouraging a regular private sector. Conversely in Italy and Spain, the development of a private domestic and care market has been mostly uncontrolled and without a coherent institutional design: the osmosis between a large informal market and the regular private care sector has been ensured on the supply side by migrant workers’ regularizations or the introduction of new employment regulations . The analysis presented in this paper aims to describe the response of these different policies to the challenges imposed by the current economic crisis. In dealing with the retrenchment of public expenditure and the reduced households’ purchasing power, Italy, Spain and France are experiencing greater difficulties in ensuring a regular private sector of domestic and care services. In light of that, the paper analyses the recent economic conjuncture presenting some assumptions about the future risk of deeper inequalities rising along with the increase of the process of marketization of domestic and care services in all the countries under analysis.    

Rethinking Care Through Social Reproduction: Articulating Circuits of Migration

Care has come to dominate much feminist research on globalized migrations and the transfer of labor from the South to the North, while the older concept of reproduction had been pushed into the background but is now becoming the subject of debates on the commodification of care in the household and changes in welfare state policies. This article argues that we could achieve a better understanding of the different modalities and trajectories of care in the reproduction of individuals, families, and communities, both of migrant and nonmigrant populations by articulating the diverse circuits of migration, in particular that of labor and the family. In doing this, I go back to the earlier North American writing on racialized minorities and migrants and stratified social reproduction. I also explore insights from current Asian studies of gendered circuits of migration connecting labor and marriage migrations as well as the notion of global householding that highlights the gender politics of social reproduction operating within and beyond households in institutional and welfare architectures. In contrast to Asia, there has relatively been little exploration in European studies of the articulation of labor and family migrations through the lens of social reproduction. However, connecting the different types of migration enables us to achieve a more complex understanding of care trajectories and their contribution to social reproduction.

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.

Weaving Futures. Family Transnationalism in the migration from Dominican Republic and Brazil to Spain

This article explores forms of migrant families’ reorganization within a (new) global economic crisis and the hardening of migration control in Europe; based on the cases of Dominican and Brazilian migration to Spain.Our goal is not to characterize the wholeness of strategies from these collectives, instead visualize its heterogeneity. Displacement of Dominican and Brazilian population to Spain shares the role of women as the first link of migration chains. In both cases women are the economic support of transnational families and they lead reunification's processes. Nevertheless, differences in the time spent in the destination country, migratory status, origin (rural-urban), level of education, class and labor insertion in destination country, affect differently, the planning and start up of migration projects, the organization of care and family reunification strategies. These findings question the predominant place granted to national origin in the study of international migration.

Migrant women’s employment in paid reproductive work through the crisis: the case of Italy (2007-2012)

Paid reproductive work, especially in the case of cleaning and home-care for elderly people, is an important sector for foreign women in Italy. For this reason, since the beginning of the current economic crisis, scholars have wondered about the impact of the recession on migrant domestic workers. They have looked particularly at possible competition with Italian women entering the sector for lack of better alternatives. Our paper takes this discussion a step further by assessing the overall changes affecting migrant women in the Italian labour market, 2007-2012. We will look at how their position has been transformed, by taking both an ethnic perspective, in relation to Italian women, and a gender perspective, in relation to migrant men. By way of a conclusion, the argument will be made that there is a substantial lack of competition between Italian and foreign women in the care and domestic sector due to differences in their earnings, hours of work and activities.

Gendered Responses to Global Crisis: Circular Migration and Return among Ecuadorian Families in Spain and Ecuador

This paper analyzes the impact of Spain’s economic crisis on social reproduction strategies of Ecuadorian migrant families in Madrid and Quito. The paper analyzes circular migration experiences and more permanent returns to Ecuador. I argue that these strategies and migrants' greater or lesser capabilities to move between different migration destinations show significant gender differences. On the one hand, men and women make a differential use of their migratory status to deploy transnational strategies and expand their mobility. On the other hand, migrants’ degree of mobility and flexibility with regard to the labor market and transnational social reproduction are derivative of a specific gendered order and sexual division of labor.