In this paper, we explore initiatives for the construction of substantive citizenship by transnational migrants in Buenos Aires. In looking at migrants’ political participation across the city, we found that the spatiality of citizenship practices is important. At the city level, there are migrant organisations representing specific nationalities. However, in informal settlements, where many migrants reside, we found that migrants engage in political practices across nationality and ethnic lines by coming together with their neighbours in grassroots organisations. These different forms of organising embody critically different views of migrants in their relationship with rights. While the former promote practices linked to ethnic belonging and see migrants as ‘guests’ in a foreign country, unable to make claims to the local or national governments, the latter see them as rights-bearing individuals with power to claim their right to the city. We argue that activism at the scale of the neighbourhood proves to hold more potential for the building of substantive citizenship than actions by organisations active at the city level. This is because migrant organisations active at the city level organise on the basis of nationality, while those at the neighbourhood level bring migrants and non-migrants together on the basis of their class-based interests.
This article aims to provide empirical evidence on understanding how migrant workers' responses to labour exploitation in low-wage economies are articulated. Inspired by the low levels of conflict among workers in small urban sweatshops in Italy and Argentina, we ask ourselves what contextual and subjective factors prevent workers from organising collectively. Here we argue that in order to understand the nature of their responses, it is necessary to consider not only the organisation of the labour process, but also the class divisions within migrant communities. We also bring in briefly the role of the state in (mis)regulating migrant labour exploitation. We conclude by showing that workers' responses are highly individualised and that community leaders with economic interests in sweatshop economies may play a role in securing their continuation by channelling the workers' responses towards the defence of the "ethnic economy".
Este artículo busca hacer un aporte a la discusión académica acerca de la naturaleza de los circuitos comerciales mayoristas informales, con énfasis en La Salada. Se busca demostrar que su funcionamiento interno responde a lógicas de extracción de plusvalía absoluta por parte de los dueños de los medios de producción. Si bien estos vastos circuitos comerciales desarrollados por grupos social y económicamente marginalizados pueden generar simpatía, no se puede esperar que sean el germen de nuevas relaciones sociales de producción, ni que se trate de relaciones sociales más igualitarias. Existe un gran interés de las grandes empresas de indumentaria por darle un marco legal a las relaciones de trabajo que se dan allí, con el objetivo de legalizar esas prácticas laborales a modo de excepción, para luego extenderlas hacia todo el sector, e incluso hacia otros sectores económicos.
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