Bolivian Labor Immigrants` Experiences in Argentina

PIZARRO, CYNTHIA ALEJANDRA

Lexington Books

Año: 2016 p. 147

978-1-4985-1416-3

This book analyses the experiences of Bolivian laborers in Argentina. It gathers research results of specialists who have studied the various ways in which these immigrants participate in certain labor markets in different urban and rural areas of Argentina. It examines their projects, trajectories, everyday lives and future prospects, and how they are influenced by the juxtaposition of various inequalities. It highlights the ways in which xenophobic mechanisms naturalize their harsh working and living conditions. The volume opens new horizons regarding novel migratory territories recently built by Bolivian laborers in Argentina. It collects the results of longstanding anthropology studies in different Provinces: Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza, Río Negro, Salta and Tierra del Fuego. It refers to the trajectories of some Bolivians who had previously migrated to Spain and returned to Argentina after the European crisis in 2008. It also compares the south-south labor migration from Bolivia to Argentina, with the north-north one from Tajikistan to the Russian Federation. In brief, this book highlights key issues regarding the structural factors that pattern the integration of Bolivian immigrants in certain labor markets segmented by inequalities, based on class, gender, ethny-race, nationality and migratory and legal status. It provides ethnographic insights about the various ways in which they experience harsh living and working conditions. Finally, it helps to understand that these men and women are capable of dealing with oppressive situations and of performing particular ways of resistance. The focus on labor migrants does not lead to a reductionist economic analysis of their trajectories, experiences and prospects for the future. On the contrary, they are studied from a holistic anthropological approach, considering that migrants make sense of their territorial mobility from complex points of view anchored in their life experiences. Therefore, the authors of this book consider that migration is a total social fact that involves economic, social, cultural and politic dimensions.