A feminização como tendência da migração boliviana para São Paulo

Abstract

The present article discusses the new migratory tendency called feminization of migrations, having the empiric case of the Bolivian immigration flux to São Paulo as its starting point. In the 1990s, Bolivian feminine presence starts attracting attention when it mushrooms. These women’s reasons for leaving Bolivia are related to difficulties in accessing land, labor and money. After their arrival, the trajectories necessarily go through working in sewing sweatshops, sometimes leading to different paths. In these sweatshops, women must face the division of productive labor, the performance of domestic activities, children care and an exposition to sexual violence. To our interpretation, the feminization of migrations constitutes a moment of a labor crisis, regarding their mobilization outside their native country as much as their insertion. This new tendency’s core is the contradiction between an autonomy gain and an exposition to renewed forms of violence.