La Migration et les émotions [Recurs electrònic] : les sentiments d'appartenance du genre et à la nation des migrants argentins à Miami et à Barcelone

Abstract

Between 1999 and 2003, Argentineans experienced an economic, political and social crisis that reached its peak during the corralito in 2001. During this period, the level of unemployment reached 25%, while 57. 5% of the population lived below the poverty line. The Argentinean fragmentation, considered as an "imagined community", lead to indignation, disappointment, frustration and uncertainty, feelings in front of which some Argentineans replied through collective actions, while others chose to migrate, mainly to the United States and to Spain. In this work, I analyze the feelings of belonging to gender and to the nation of migrants in Miami and Barcelona between 1999 and 2003. The migratory process is considered as an "emotional experience" that involves negotiations and changes of identification for the individuals that may be experienced and expressed emotionally. Taking into account the expression of emotions according to the gender of the individuals with the goal of analyzing the migration process is not only a new perspective, but also allows us to acquire a better understanding of migration. The choice of the interviews was carried out in line with the family social status, if they migrated single or in couple. The comparison of two fieldworks, Miami and Barcelona, and two moments separated three years in time, allowed me to tend towards an objectification of the emotions and to attain a global understanding of its functioning during the migration process. In order to capture the emotions, I used qualitative techniques. Only going back and forth between the analysis of my interviews and the participant observation allowed me to understand the emotions expressed through the discourse of the interviewees. This work shows that the expression of emotions by the interviewees (hope, guilt, sadness, fear, anger, shame, love, nostalgia), and the representations and actions associated to those, depends on the construction of gender's subjectivity, temporality and place of migration.

Date of Award	22 Feb 2013
Original language	French
Supervisor	Mª Jesus Izquierdo Benito (Director)