The voices of homeless men about work

Abstract

This article aims to highlight and analyze the discourses of homeless men regarding the meanings of work, as well as the access to and working conditions to which they are subjected. Data collection took place within the scope of a Social Work internship at the Centro-Pop in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, through a discussion group held with service users, which brought work as the central theme of the debate. Data organization was based on the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD), and the analysis was anchored in the theoretical bases of Social Work. By giving voice to the participants’ experiences on the subject, the collected discourses were divided into two axes, from which five central ideas branch out. Axis A dealt with presenting the representation of work for homeless men, ranging from the idea of ​​feeling valued by society to the reflection on work as a form of survival and exploitation. In Axis B, the discussion focused on their insertion into the world of work, marked by stigma, discrimination, underemployment, and lack of rights. In a world of limited opportunities, access to formal employment becomes the ideal of professional fulfillment for those subjected to degrading jobs, lacking the minimum necessary to join the industrial reserve army.