Experiences of legality among MERCOSUR migrants in Argentina by the late 2000s
An Oppenheimer Chair Brown Bag Lunch Seminar with Aranzazu Recalde.
Abstract
Over the 2000s, a number of factors importantly impacted the circumstances of Peruvians, Paraguayans and Bolivians in Argentina. In the context of deepening regional integration (MERCOSUR), the government adopted a new migration law in December 2003 that grants these migrants (as nationals of the bloc) equal rights to Argentinians. Moreover, thanks to an active policy of “recovery of social rights”, these migrants (along with other disadvantaged social groups) not only accessed a wide range of public services and goods but were also granted equal protection by the state. On the other hand, the economic consolidation of Chinese shop owners along with the recent arrivals of African asylum seekers have both contributed to reposition (higher) Peruvians, Bolivians and Paraguayans in the “ethnic hierarchies of value” of cities such as Buenos Aires and La Plata.
Drawing on recent fieldwork conducted in La Plata district and on the analysis of local, national and regional strategies deployed by the government over the 2000s, my talk examines the impact of the above mentioned processes on the circumstances of Peruvians, Bolivians and Paraguayans living in urban, suburban and rural areas of the district. What are the central factors mediating between migrants’ legal, formal “equality” and their actual access to economic, social and political rights?
About the speaker.
Aranzazu Recalde is currently writing her doctoral dissertation at the Anthropology Department of the UdeM, after having completed an MA in Anthropology at McGill and two other degrees in Social Policy (at FLACSO) and in Anthropology (at UNLP) in Argentina. Aranza’s commitment to the study of migrations dates back to 1995 when she began to examine identity and integration issues among Japanese descendants in La Plata city, Argentina. Progressively, Aranza’s research interests have focused on the impact of regional integration initiatives on the granting and enforcement of migrants’ rights, issues that she has examined among South American migrants in Argentina under the MERCOSUR. Aranza’s has extensively taught (in Argentina, Vancouver and Montreal) and worked for the Argentinean (CFI) and Canadian (CIC) Federal Governments as well as in NGOS serving migrants and refugees (La Plata and Vancouver). Aranza is at present more closely examining the “gendering” of migrant rights and the role played by women in transnational social arrangements.
