This thesis examines the migration trajectories of members of a community of Bolivian ex-miners with the aim of analysing gender and social change in migration. It starts by making the case for a holistic approach to the study of migration, one which pays attention to migrants’ agency without losing sight of the social structures within which migrants are embedded, thereby arguing for a structuration approach. Gender relations are identified as crucial for understanding migration patterns as well as the consequences of migration processes; however, gender should not be used in isolation. Rather, it is here argued that gender analysis needs to include race, class and ethnicity issues to have relevance for migrants’ lives and migration theories. Fieldwork was multi-sited. Migrants’ life stories recorded in Bolivia and Argentina are in this study combined with a community survey applied to one of the intermediary points of the various livelihood trajectories followed by the migrant ex-miners – a neighbourhood situated on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia. The application of this methodology reveals the need for including migrants’ priorities and concerns within the analysis as well as the need for finding analytic concepts which help bridge the actor-structure spheres. Empirical chapters therefore focus on migrants’ life stories, social networks and social capital, situating women and men migrants’ choices and decisions within the wider framework of historic migration trends, economic crises and social power relations in Argentina and Bolivia. The analysis traces women migrants’ increasing participation in the Bolivian and then Argentine labour market, suggesting that migration creates opportunities for a radical change in gender relations within this particular community by increasing their choices. However, the data here presented also identifies critical points of contention – such as their access to social networks and gender labour market segregation – which frustrate women’s ability to negotiate more equal gender relations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:636053 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Bastia, T. |
| Publisher | Swansea University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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