Mobilities and ethnicity in Latin American sewing territories

In this article, we address the Bolivian work in the clothing industry in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) through an analysis of the social networks that allow the entry and circulation of migrants in this activity. In the light of urban sociology debate on immigrant ec...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Freitas, Patricia Tavares
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Sociologias (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:seer.ufrgs.br:article/111847
Acceso en línea:https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/sociologias/article/view/111847
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:indústria de confecção
migrações internacionais
diáspora boliviana
economias étnicas
territórios circulatórios
clothing industry
international migrations
Bolivian diaspora
ethnic economies
circulatory territories
Descripción
Sumario:In this article, we address the Bolivian work in the clothing industry in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) through an analysis of the social networks that allow the entry and circulation of migrants in this activity. In the light of urban sociology debate on immigrant economies, we wonder whether these activities produce ethnic economies or circulatory territories. Based on multi-site participant observation and 50 interviews with Bolivian workers, we propose the hypothesis of a hybrid economy, with a strong ethnic component associated to high mobility of workers in multiethnic contexts. We argue that this hybridity is due to the formation of two contracting network types with different logics of operation: one, from the migrant’s place of origin in Bolivia and, the other, in the migrant’s destination cities. Circumstances that allow us to see the emergence of new cosmopolitanisms in these sewing territories. However, these new cosmopolitanisms are ambivalently associated with the appeals of ethnicity, outlining a new field of political clashes, internal to the Bolivian community, around their identity belonging in the destination cities.