Migratory Rules and State Control in Argentina

PIZARRO, CYNTHIA ALEJANDRA

Stavropol

Seminario; Program of International Seminar School of Young Scientists; 2014

The following is a study of Bolivian women who have crossed the international border and settled in the peri-urban areas of Argentina, especially the experiences of those women coming from the poorest rural areas of Bolivia in the context of both, the restrictive migratory policies of the last century and the current more inclusive Migration Act of 2014. We explore the way in which different state control mechanisms work and how they are implemented at the international border and within the Argentinean territory. We pose that these women, like other marginalized groups, experience difficulties due to class, ethnic group, gender and nationality. Despite the change in the actual immigration policy of Argentina which grants the immigrants human rights, it continues to foster the control of labor migrations in accordance with the paradigm of the governance of migration. We will describe from an ethnographic perspective three cases representative of the different ways in which the most vulnerable Bolivian women cross the borders. On the one hand, we will point out that there still remains the feeling of fear and trauma associated with the crossing of borders. On the other hand, we will refer to the agency of these women, focusing on their ability to sort out state control policies which regulate labor migrations.