Family Transnationalism, Gender and Migration Policy. Latin Amercian Migrant Families in Spain

GIL ARAUJO, SANDRA; PEDONE, CLAUDIA; AGRELA, BELÉN

Oakland, California

Encuentro; 81st Annual Pacific Sociology Assosiation Meeting: Revitalizing the Sociological Imagination. Individual Troubles and Social Issue in a Turbulent World; 2010

Pacific Sociology Assosiation

Our proposal aims to analyse the impact of public policies and discourses on migration, family and integration in the strategies and trajectories of Latin American migrant families in Spain.Our study articulates the conceptual dimension (definition of family) with the political and normative dimension (family migration regulation and public intervention) and the subjective and micro dimension of these processes (family reorganization). The results we present here derive from: a) the study of regulations and documents (plans and programmes) from a gender perspective, b) in-depth interviews with representatives of the main political parties at a national level and also at a local level, in our case, from the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, and c) an ethnographic fieldwork with Bolivian and Dominican families located in Catalonia. The selection of these two nationalities is based on the differences in: migration patterns, time of arrival, administrative status and a variety of strategies to pursue family reunification.