Submission Date

4-24-2017

Document Type

Paper

Department

Modern Languages (Spanish)

Adviser

Chisu Teresa Ko

Committee Member

Juan Ramón de Arana

Committee Member

José Eduardo Cornelio

Committee Member

Xochitl Shuru

Department Chair

Matthew Mizenko

Project Description

In the contemporary neoliberal era, the global phenomenon of migration dominates the international political discourse and generates empirical and normative questions regarding the admission, rights, and realities of migrants who leave their home countries to live elsewhere. Argentina and the United States are countries in which migration was, and continues to be, a main factor in shaping the nation’s identity. Despite the similar migratory phenomenon in both of these countries, their migratory policies vastly differ—Argentina considers migration to be a right, but the United States constantly strengthens its efforts to deter migrants from entering the country. Even though migratory policies differ, however, there is wide documentation that Bolivian migrants in Argentina and Mexican migrants in the United States are often denied their basic rights and encounter precarious working conditions in the garment industry. Because of these circumstances, Argentina and the United States can provide a fascinating comparative case study to analyze the current state of migration in the neoliberal era. This project analyzes the history of Bolivian migration to Argentina and Mexican migration to the United States, the Argentine and United States migratory laws, and the working conditions in sweatshops employed by migrant workers in both countries to evaluate how migratory laws shape our social understanding of the category of “migrant” and how this legal status functions to perpetuate precarious labor conditions for migrants working in sweatshops in Argentina and the United States.

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