Migrant Women. Mobilized in search of recognition: MOVILIZADAS POR LA BÚSQUEDA DE RECONOCIMIENTO

Abstract

Migration has changed in recent decades and. –among the most significant changes– is the feminization it has undergone. This new reality has challenged –contradicted– the traditional “gender-blind” theoretical assumptions, according to which women had an associative pattern, following migration projects’ defined by men. Thus, reality has forced a movement of theoretical and research openness that brings the gender dimension of the migration experience to the fore. As this has happened, the plurality of potential trajectories and meanings has become evident. This article seeks to contribute to this project of making stories visible by presenting and analyzing the life stories of seven Colombian migrants. The analysis shows that subjective recognition –in its different dimensions: relational, political and social construction– is at the core of the participants’ migratory experiences. Achieving recognition results in an experience of identity expansion; on the contrary, when expectations of recognition remain unfulfilled, the experience is one of loss and constriction at the identity level and in the possibilities of relating to the social world. In this sense, we emphasize the importance of thinking of research processes as possible spaces for recognition.