Abstract

SALAS BUSTILLOS, José Agustín. Social representations of “textile work” in migrant bolivians in Buenos Aires. Revista de Psicologia [online]. 2022, n.28, pp.67-88. ISSN 2223-3032.  https://doi.org/10.53287/irqy7679mm20a.

This article describes the social representations of "textile work" in Bolivians who live and work in Buenos Aires - Argentina. Bolivian migration has a long history in the neighboring country, and textile work has become the main occupation, above horticulture and construction work. In this article, "textile work" is presented as an occupation traversed by secrecy, illegality, labor exploitation, human trafficking and smuggling, job insecurity and slave labor. The results indicate that working Bolivians build their identity without detaching themselves from their customs, experiencing fatalism and conformism as social consequences of exploitation and job insecurity. The common patterns indicate that textile work is a way of life that implies the abandonment of the idea of ​​return and the achievement of a perpetual mourning, having the country itself (Bolivia) as the object of mourning. These constructions fall into a series of internal, social and health conflicts. Textile work becomes a phenomenon that explains the value chain of exploitation by work in a situation of exploitation, but in Bolivians it takes on another dimension from their social representations that are articulated and at the same time dichotomous.

Keywords : Social representations; Textile work; Migrations; Life histories; Theory grounded in data.

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