Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

From Mining to Garment Workshops: Bolivian Migrants in Buenos Aires

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13691830701265628

1469-9451

Tanja Bastia,

Migration and Labor Dynamics

Abstract Based on case-study material from Bolivian migration to Argentina, this article analyses the ways in which gender and ethnicity influence niche formation by exploring the role of social networks. It starts by making the link between niche formation and social networks, before analysing the ways in which migrants' labour market insertion in Argentina is gendered. Migrants' life stories and a survey of a community of ex-miners show that a higher proportion of women than men work in the Argentine garment sector. The data also show that migrant women and men do not have equal access to social networks. However, this unequal access does not, in itself, fully explain women's greater clustering in garment work. Rather, the article suggests that labour market segregation and the articulation of gender, class and ethnicity, as well as migration status, provide women with few alternatives. Keywords: Labour MigrationSocial NetworksGenderBoliviaArgentina I would like to thank my doctoral supervisors, Dr Jeremy Holland and Dr Helen Hintjens, for their support, and Marlou Schrover, Ivan Light and Joanne van der Leun, as well as the anonymous JEMS referee, for their useful comments. This article is based on research undertaken for a doctoral degree and was financed by the University of Wales Swansea and its Centre of Development Studies as part of a project of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). I am grateful to both institutions for their financial support. However, the research on which this article is based would not have been possible without the many people who opened up their lives and homes to me in Cochabamba and Buenos Aires; they will remain anonymous to protect their confidentiality of the information they provided. Special acknowledgement goes to my hermana mayor who welcomed me into her family and her community, carried out the survey and provided logistical help throughout the fieldwork, including access to other migrants. Notes 1. Qualitative data and participant observation showed that, among returnees, 12 years old was the youngest age at which a person migrated for work. It was therefore unlikely that anyone younger than 12 would have migrated for work either as part of the family or independently. 2. Many references mention the participation of Bolivians in the garment sector (Benencia and Karasik 1995; Courtis 2000; Mugarza 1985; Recchini de Lattes 1988), but do not provide detailed information regarding their relative importance. Koreans have entered the garment sector since the 1980s (Courtis 2000). Additional informationNotes on contributorsTanja BastiaTanja Bastia is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the School of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University