Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Vol. 33, No. 4, May 2007, pp. 655 669
From Mining to Garment Workshops:
Bolivian Migrants in Buenos Aires
Tanja Bastia
Based on case-study material from Bolivian migration to Argentina, this article analyses
the ways in which gender and ethnicity influence niche formation by exploring the role of
social networks. It starts by making the link between niche formation and social
networks, before analysing the ways in which migrants’ labour market insertion in
Argentina is gendered. Migrants’ life stories and a survey of a community of ex-miners
show that a higher proportion of women than men work in the Argentine garment sector.
The data also show that migrant women and men do not have equal access to social
networks. However, this unequal access does not, in itself, fully explain women’s greater
clustering in garment work. Rather, the article suggests that labour market segregation
and the articulation of gender, class and ethnicity, as well as migration status, provide
women with few alternatives.
Keywords: Labour Migration; Social Networks; Gender; Bolivia; Argentina
Introduction
Niches have generally been defined as the ‘overrepresentation of ethnic or racial
minorities in particular jobs’ (Model 1993: 164). However, as Schrover et al. show in
their introduction to this JEMS special issue, recent research has advanced niche
theories with regards to a number of issues. Firstly, contrary to what was previously
thought, niches are not limited to retail or self-employment but can also be found in
other sectors of the economy, such as the civil service (Waldinger 1994). Secondly,
niche formation and migrants’ participation in a niche economy are not dependent
upon spatial clustering in a migrant neighbourhood (Boyd 2001; Portes and Jensen
1989 and 1992). Thirdly, niches have generally focused on ethnicity and migrant
status, disregarding gender issues, with some exceptions, notably the work by Anthias
(1983) on Greek-Cypriots in Britain. It is now increasingly recognised that gender
Tanja Bastia is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the School of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University.
Correspondence to: Dr T. Bastia, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building,
King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
ISSN 1369-183X print/ISSN 1469-9451 online/07/0400655-15 # 2007 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13691830701265628
656 T. Bastia
plays an important role within niche economies in terms of the kinds of jobs
undertaken and their relative benefits (Gilbertson 1995; Wright and Ellis 2000).
This article analyses the importance of the garment sector for a specific group of
migrants: Bolivians working and living in Argentina. The analysis starts from the
migrants’ life stories and the way these relate to their migration strategies and
opportunities in the host employment market. It explores the articulation of gender
with race, ethnicity and class in migrants’ labour market insertion strategies, paying
particular attention to migrants’ use of social networks and the way this relates to
niche formation. The general literature on the migration of Bolivians to Argentina
suggests that there are gender differences in their labour market insertion. The
garment sector provides an interesting case study since it gives us the possibility to
explore the role of social networks in niche formation and gender differences in a
particular sector where both women and men are employed. While the data included
in this paper provide some clues as to the gendering of social networks, this is
insufficient to fully explain the differences found in the garment sector. It is argued
that both social networks as well as existing labour market segregation along gender
lines in Argentina are responsible for the fact that this particular niche is more
important as a source of employment for migrant women than it is for migrant men.
Niches, Social Networks and Gender
Niches are understood to be the result of the role played by social networks in
migration (Light et al. 1999). There is in fact a proven close relationship between
niches and social networks (Rath 2002; see also MacDonald and MacDonald 1964 for
chain migration). Bailey and Waldinger (1991), for example, show the way social
networks play a crucial role in supplying employers in the New York garment
industry with workers they deem reliable while on the other hand providing workers
with training opportunities generally with co-ethnic employers.
Despite a long-standing recognition of the role played by social networks in the
development of niches, there has been, to date, very little research on the way gender
relations influence social networks and, as a consequence, shape niches. Some have
warned that ‘much of the literature assumes that these networks are male dominated
and that women follow men’ (Phizacklea 1999: 39). However, an emerging body of
literature is now starting to look at the way these networks are gendered (see e.g.
Hagan 1998; Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994). Wright and Ellis (2000), for example, have
conducted a comparative analysis of several ethnic groups in the Los Angeles labour
market. They found that women are less concentrated in niches than men are. With
only one exception, ‘recently arrived men are more likely than recently arrived
immigrant women to cluster with co-ethnics of the same sex’ (2000: 594). They also
suggest that ‘women do not always tap the same migration information systems as
men and often possess inferior financial resources for moving’ (2000: 585). They
therefore propose that gendered social networks are at the base of gendered labour
market participation within the niche economy.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
657
Niches are formed and maintained through the social networks migrants engage in.
It is therefore fair to assume that, besides other causes, such as unequal gender
relations within the household, occupational stereotyping and different educational
attainments, unequal access to social networks also plays an important role in
developing a gendered outcome in terms of the migrants’ labour market participation, which includes participation in migrant and ethnic niches.
Data and Methods
This research is part of a larger project on the Bolivian migration to Argentina. I
conducted fieldwork and data collection at both points of origin and destination: in
Cochabamba, Bolivia during May and June 2002 and in Buenos Aires, Argentina
during January and March 2003 (see Mahler 1999 for another Latin American
example of research conducted at both ends of the migration process). I was helped
throughout this process by a research assistant who is an ex-migrant and a member of
this community of migrant ex-miners. The quantitative data was collected by my
research assistant by applying a structured questionnaire through face-to-face
interviews in the neighbourhood of ex-miners located at the outskirts of
Cochabamba to gather primary data on migration patterns. She randomly selected
a third of all households, gaining 157 positive responses. This represents just over a
quarter of all households in this neighbourhood, and in total gathered information
on 605 people over the age of twelve.1 The qualitative data was obtained by collecting
migrants’ life stories through unstructured interviews, which I conducted in Spanish;
sometimes my research assistant was also present. In total, I collected, transcribed and
analysed 38 life stories. This included Bolivian returnees interviewed in Cochabamba
as well as Bolivian migrants living in Buenos Aires.
Given the high response rate (89 per cent) of the face-to-face neighbourhood
survey, the quantitative data can be taken to be representative of this particular
neighbourhood. However, the conclusions cannot be generalised to other Bolivian
communities or regional areas. This group of ex-miners shows different historical
trajectories in terms of their inclusion in the national migration across the Argentine
border as well as specific socio-economic and occupational characteristics. They are
here presented as a case study of migrant ex-miners turned garment workers, given
their relevance to migration and niche theories.
Gendered Migrant Labour Markets
Migration trends in what some have termed the Argentinean migration system
(Massey et al. 1998) as well as the Argentine national labour market have changed
considerably over the course of the last decades of the twentieth century, with
migration across the BolivianArgentine border showing signs of steady increase.
According to census data, Bolivians were the fastest growing migrant group from a
neighbouring country between 1980 and 1991 and were only preceded by Peruvians
658 T. Bastia
during 19912001 (INDEC 1991 and 2001). The 1980 census registered 118,141
Bolivians; the 1991 census counted 143,569 Bolivians; by 2001 they had increased to
233,464 (INDEC 1997 and 2001).
Bolivian migration is essentially economic in nature. Both women and men travel
to Argentina for work in order to improve their standard of living. Moreover,
Bolivian migration to Argentina is mostly temporary or circulatory (Balán 1995;
Dandler and Medeiros 1988) and ties with their place of origin and family members
who remained in Bolivia are seldom severed, as is the case with other migratory
groups within the Americas (see e.g. Ellis et al. 1996 for Puerto Rican women). The
attraction of Argentina as a destination for Bolivian migrants changed radically since
the crisis in 2001 and the consequent floating of the Argentine peso. Anecdotal
evidence suggests both numerous returns to Bolivia as well as increasing numbers of
Bolivian migrants travelling to Spain.
The BoliviaArgentina migration flow is very dynamic, responding to changing
circumstances and opportunities. It has recently shown changes in line with global
trends in international migration (Castles and Miller 1993), such as a move from
peripheral areas towards the capital city, increasing feminisation of migration, and an
increased tendency towards illegal forms of migration. In the past Bolivians
concentrated in the northern Argentinean provinces of Salta, Jujuy, La Rioja and
Mendoza and were mainly engaged in agriculture. Today, their preferred destination
is Buenos Aires, where they partly maintain their close relationships with agricultural
production, albeit under changing circumstances and arrangements, but have also
integrated into the urban economy (Benencia and Gazzotti 1995; INDEC 1997).
The structural changes that brought about a geographical displacement of these
migration flows have contributed to a feminisation of this particular migration. The
new globalised economy, and its shift to the tertiary sector, creates a higher demand
for what is generally acknowledged to be ‘female labour’. An ageing population and
high levels of female labour market participation often result in increasing demand
for domestic workers. In the case of Argentina, female migrants account for 65 per
cent of the total increase in migration from neighbouring countries over the period
from 1970 to 1990 (INDEC 1997).
It is not surprising to find that labour market insertion of Bolivians in Argentina is
gender-selective (Benencia and Gazzotti 1995). Women migrants from this community are primarily involved in garment manufacturing, domestic work, and trading in
clothes and vegetables (Benencia and Karasik 1995; Grimson 2000; Mugarza 1985;
Recchini de Lattes 1988; Zunino 1997). Men on the other hand used to work in
agriculture, construction and garment manufacturing (Benencia and Karasik 1995;
Grimson 2000) but, since the 2001 economic and political crisis, have decreased their
participation in building because of diminishing opportunities in the construction
industry. A number of migrants from the community of ex-miners were able to
become upwardly mobile and are now working in relatively more stable and better
paid jobs such as bus drivers and nurses.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
659
Migration status clearly affects migrants’ choices and opportunities and it is
indicative that Bolivian migration is increasingly undertaken illegally (Sassone 1989),
usually by migrants overstaying their tourist visas to engage in paid work. The
primary data collected for this research confirms that it has been increasingly difficult
for more recently arrived migrants to regularise their work and stay in Argentina (cf.
also Oteiza and Novick 2000). This has important implications in terms of accessing
jobs as well as working conditions, as will be explained below.
From Mining to Garment Workshops
Most of the migrants interviewed belonged to a community of ex-miners who have
relocated from the mining town to the outskirts of Cochabamba, the third largest city
in Bolivia, during the 1990s. Many ex-miners and members of their families pursued
livelihood diversification strategies at least since the 1980s, as a consequence of the
severe economic crisis in Bolivia, which included plummeting mineral prices and the
restructuring of the state-owned mining company, Comibol. Buenos Aires was just
one of the destination areas, but one of increasing importance for this community
during the 1990s. The significance of international migration as a livelihood strategy
for this particular community is illustrated by the fact that, at the time of the survey
in 2002, almost a third of all households (30 per cent) had somebody living abroad.
Of these, almost a quarter had four or five absent family members. Migration as a
livelihood diversification strategy at the community and household level was
identified by Massey et al. (1998) as part of their ‘new economics of migration’,
but where their overview falls short is its lack of attention to questions of gender and
power relations, an issue well researched within feminist sociology and its critique of
the new household economics (Kabeer 1994, especially Chapter 5). This article
provides additional arguments on the importance of incorporating gender in
migration research and disaggregating units of analysis, including the household.
My own survey data shows that Buenos Aires is the main destination for this group
of migrants. This is explained by the fact that they started migrating relatively late
(late 1980s and early 1990s), when the Argentine capital had already taken precedence
as a favoured destination for those Bolivian migrants who had in previous decades
concentrated in the Argentine northern regions. Men led this migration. However,
women’s independent migration increased throughout the 1990s, peaking in 1998.
Women from this community also display high rates of female labour market
participation while in Argentina. Survey data shows that both men and women
migrate for work and that both have similar labour market participation rates: 85.4
per cent of all female returnees and 87 per cent of all male returnees stated that they
worked while abroad. This is to some extent surprising, given earlier studies that
showed Bolivian women migrants having much lower participation rates. For
example, according to the 1991 census only 45 per cent of migrant women from the
neighbouring countries were economically active (INADI 2001). Another study
conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) showed that
660 T. Bastia
56.7 per cent of Bolivian women were working at the time of the survey (Zunino
1997). Finally, regarding the wider migration trends discussed above, the migrants’
stories also describe increasing difficulties members of this community face in their
attempts to regularise their stay abroad, which in turn influences the specific
characteristics of migrants’ labour market insertion.
Labour market participation among this group of migrants is clearly gendered,
with women being found in only a fraction of the occupations men participate in.
Men returnees had worked in 14 occupations; women returnees in only six. The latter
were predominantly employed in the garment sector, followed by domestic work.
This reproduces patterns found in the wider gender-based segregation of the
Argentine labour market. However, what is interesting to note for the purposes of
this paper is the high concentration of Bolivian migrants in garment work.
The quantitative data shows that the garment sector was the most significant
employer for this group of ex-miners (Table 1). Again, there are gender differences
given that, for women, garment work was much more significant as an occupation
than for men. Over half of all women (52.9 per cent) had in fact worked in the
garment sector as their main occupation, while this was the case for a third of all
men. It is clear that the garment sector here cannot be considered as a migrants’ niche
in its classical sense.2 However, the gender composition of a sector, whether this is
taken from the sectoral or from the migrants’ point of view, can be explored further
to shed light on the intricate relationship between gender, ethnicity and class and the
role these identities play in migrants’ labour market insertion. As will be seen in the
next section, the data collected suggests that the ‘niche’ was more important as an
employer to women than it was to male migrant workers.
It could be argued that there is a bias in this survey data, given the fact that it is
representative of returnees and therefore excludes those migrants who stayed in
Buenos Aires. However, qualitative data collected among migrants living in Buenos
Aires shows a similar picture and spread of occupations, except for the presence of
upwardly mobile migrants employed in different, more stable occupations. Among
Table 1. Bolivian returnees: occupation in Argentina by sex, per cent
Bolivian returnees’ occupations
Textile/garment worker
Domestic worker
Builder
Trader
Agricultural worker
Waiter
Constructiontextile/garment worker
Driver
Factory worker
Other
Women (n34)
Men (n 45)
Total (n 79)
52.9
26.5
0.0
8.8
5.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
2.9
2.9
33.3
0.0
13.3
4.4
6.7
6.7
6.7
6.7
2.2
19.9
41.8
11.4
7.6
6.3
6.3
3.8
3.8
3.8
2.5
12.9
Note : ‘Other’ includes a plumber, a baker, a blacksmith, a security worker, a mechanic and a builder/trader.
Source : Author’s survey of returnees in Cochabamba, Bolivia, 2002.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
661
women, this includes nurses who were able to secure stable employment after
pursuing further training and education.
It is well-known that the working conditions in the garment sector are far from
desirable (Ceccagno, this issue; Rath 2002). Migrants describe workshops as
overcrowded, with limited lighting or ventilation. The fact that these workshops
are not registered with the national fiscal authorities makes the working conditions
worse. Workshop owners, in their attempts to hide their activities, limit the size of the
windows and lighting and often restrict workers’ movements. Many workers live at
the workplace, sometimes taking turns to sleep on a bed shared with co-workers. An
additional impediment is the lack of a regular work permit which makes migrants
fearful of deportation and allows employers to use this to limit their freedom of
movement. Some workers do not leave the workshops for the first few months. In
some cases they had no outside contact for over a year. Given the tight work schedule
and lack of alternatives, workers were dependent on their employers for food, which
they often described as being inadequate.
In terms of working hours, these range from 12 to 17 hours per working day (8am
to up to 1am) with a half-hour break for lunch. The working week usually starts on
Monday and finishes on Saturday midday, when most workers have to leave the
workshop and arrange for their own food and lodging. Wages vary greatly, depending
on the experience, working mode (hourly, daily, weekly or monthly pay or piecerate), gender and nationality of employer. Before the devaluation at the beginning of
2002, workers’ aids (trainees) were sometimes paid 150 pesos (then equivalent to US
dollars) during the first few months of employment. They could then expect this to
rise to a maximum of 500 pesos per month for women and up to 1,000 pesos for
men. The interviews indicate that men working in the garment sector were able to
secure higher wages and they were also more likely to be working piece-rate,
following a short period of apprenticeship.
Employers’ nationality was found to be important but, contrary to expectations,
Bolivian migrants preferred Korean employers. While all migrants interviewed in
Bolivia (returnees) had worked for Bolivian employers, those interviewed in Buenos
Aires worked for either Bolivian or Korean employers, with the exception of one who
was employed by a Peruvian. Migrants generally recognised that Korean employers
demanded a longer working day and expected their employees to work harder, but
they felt that this was compensated for because they paid higher wages. They were
also deemed to be more reliable in terms of actually paying their employees. Bolivian
employers paid lower wages and were generally thought of as unreliable*sometimes
they closed their workshops owing their employees several months’ wages.
Bolivian employers were, however, sought at the beginning of a migrant’s
occupational trajectory as training providers. The qualitative data gathered through
life-story interviews shows a pattern of migrants working for Bolivian employers in
order to gain the skills necessary to find better-paid positions with other migrant*
but not necessarily ‘co-ethnic’*employers. Typically, a migrant works for a Bolivian
employer for three months for little or no pay and then tries to find a Korean
662 T. Bastia
employer in order to have access to higher wages. This finding is consistent with that
of Light et al. (1999) who found that only a third of surveyed migrant workers were
working for co-ethnic employees; co-ethnic was taken to be the sharing of the same
nationality, although the authors recognise that shared nationality or citizenship does
not necessarily mean shared ethnicity. Bolivians working in the Buenos Aires garment
workshops might be able to set up a workshop of their own with time, employing
members from their social network. Upward mobility within the garment sector is
therefore pursued by establishing employment relations with members of the migrant
community, but not necessarily with those of common nationality or ethnicity (Light
et al. 1999).
The fact that women have only a limited range of available occupations also
influences their chances for upward social mobility. In the migrants’ occupational
trajectories observed for this research, men were able to ascend, in terms of wages and
stability, in a range of occupations. On the other hand, women were mainly employed
in three occupations and were able to become upwardly mobile only by pursuing
further training in other typically female occupations, such as nursing. A number of
women were also successful traders or were able to set up their workshops, but this
was seen as a temporary income-generating opportunity rather than a long-term
investment leading to income stability and upward social mobility. Men, on the other
hand, were able to achieve better wages and more stability following a clear
occupational ladder, moving from garment worker to driver and sometimes to
establishing successful businesses.
Gendered Social Networks
Having described the labour market situation of Bolivian women and men in general
and from this community in particular, the task at hand now is to try to explain the
reasons for this inequality. Gender ideology is the basis on which further symbolic
and material inequalities are constructed in society and in the household. It also leads
women to have a disadvantaged position in the labour market (see e.g. Scott 1994).
So far, the article has analysed the way these factors influence the gendered labour
market insertion of Bolivians in Argentina. However, it is clear that the participation
of this migrant group in the labour market is of a specific nature since the majority is
employed in a single occupation. With regards to niches, Wright and Ellis (2000)
suggest that women and men have unequal access to social networks and, as a
consequence, to labour market opportunities. The rest of this article will therefore
explore how social networks shape the labour market insertion of Bolivian migrants
in Argentina, and specifically those who belong to the migrant group outlined above.
The survey data gives some indication about the way social networks are gendered.
The quantitative data collected through the neighbourhood survey regarding
women’s and men’s use of social networks during the initial stages of the migration
process, that is, during travel to Argentina and provision of initial accommodation,
suggests that women and men make different use of social networks. Table 2 shows
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
663
Table 2. Social networks: travel companion by sex, per cent
Travel companion
Alone
Husband/wife
Other family
Friends
Parents
Siblings
Other
Women (n 42)
Men (n 54)
Total (n 96)
38.1
23.8
16.7
4.8
7.1
4.8
4.8
33.3
16.7
13.0
18.5
7.4
7.4
3.7
35.4
19.8
14.6
12.5
7.3
6.3
4.2
Source : As Table 1.
that women are more likely than men to travel alone and with their spouses or other
family members. Men, on the other hand are more likely than women to be travelling
with friends: 18.5 per cent of all males travelled with friends, compared to only
4.8 per cent of females.
Table 3 presents a similar pattern. Migrant men are more likely than migrant
women to stay with friends, while women are more likely than men to stay in a hostel.
In both tables, women are more likely than men to travel alone and stay in a hostel,
therefore showing lower access to social networks in general and specifically lower
access to friendship-based social networks. Men, on the other hand, have wider access
to social networks based on friendship. This can be explained by a number of reasons.
As the previous account showed, men’s migration from this particular community
started earlier than women’s. Their better-developed social networks could therefore
be a consequence of the fact that they have been present in Argentina for longer. The
relationships they established in their place of origin could also play a part in this
process. Mining is a male occupation. Despite the fact that some women do
participate in mining activities, the tasks are heavily gendered and the spatial
organisation of the sexual division of labour provides men with more opportunities
for establishing stronger relations and bonding with co-workers. Men usually work in
groups underground; women work mainly alone above ground-level, creating fewer
chances for bonding and organising. In fact, miners’ organisations are generally
dominated by men. In cases when women do organise, they usually do so on the basis
of their husbands’ identity as miners and their identity as housewives (see Barrios de
Table 3. Social networks: accommodation upon arrival in Buenos Aires by sex, per cent
Accommodation
Extended family
Hostel
Friends
Close family
Garment workshop
Own house
Source : As Table 1.
Women (n39)
Men (n51)
Total (n90)
35.9
28.2
12.8
15.4
7.7
0.0
31.4
17.6
19.6
17.6
11.8
2.0
33.3
22.2
16.7
16.7
10.0
1.1
664 T. Bastia
Chungara 1978). The life-story accounts collected for this research suggest that men
used their identity as ex-miners to pursue their migration objectives, for example, by
calling for help and support from people with whom they had little linkage beyond a
shared identity as members of the mining community. For women, this was more
difficult to achieve.
Given the fact that all of those interviewed found jobs through the person they first
stayed with, it is possible to take the variable ‘stayed with’ as a proxy for ‘found job
through’. This would also suggest that women have lower access to social networks. It
could therefore be argued that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to making
use of these networks for finding a job because they are not as well integrated within
the community’s social networks as men are. This finding is not entirely surprising.
Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994), in her book Gendered Transitions, shows that social
networks are gendered. Wright and Ellis (2000) arrive at a similar conclusion when
they argue that social networks are gendered in such a way as to give women lower
access to the information and the financial resources that facilitate their migration. In
relation to Peruvian labour market segregation, Scott (1994) argues that kinship
networks act as mechanisms of discrimination against women and perpetuate gender
segregation, in a context where over two-thirds of the labour force examined was
made up of internal migrants. She describes the way recruitment is more casual in the
least desirable jobs, such as construction, factories, sweatshops and domestic service,
while the ‘personalisation of recruitment was associated with better, scarcer jobs’
(Scott 1994:170).
There is, however, a contradiction. If niches are primarily established through
social networks, as the theories and empirical data reviewed at the beginning of this
article showed, then women, who have lower access to these networks, would be less,
not more likely to find themselves in a niche occupation like the garment sector. It is
therefore necessary to look in more detail into social networks as well as beyond
them, to wider labour market characteristics, to build a better understanding of
niching.
Women’s clustering in the garment sector can be explained by looking at the
alternatives open to them. Chief among these are domestic work and, to a lesser
extent, trade. Domestic work involves long hours, relatively low salaries and
personalised working relations which often include a good degree of harassment,
including sexual harassment, and the imposition of hierarchical working relations
between employer and employee (Chaney and Garcia Castro 1989; Moya, this issue).
Migrant women often choose to work in this sector because the ‘live-in’ arrangements
give them the opportunity to maximise their savings by offering accommodation and
meals as part of the agreement and no commuting costs. For first-time migrants, this
is a bonus given the fact that they are able to keep most of their salary as savings or
for sending home (Pappas-DeLuca 1999). For women from Bolivia, however, there is
an additional problem related to their would-be status as domestic workers.
Domestic work in Bolivia is carried out by young, unmarried women, often girls in
their early teens or younger, of rural origin. It is a highly feminised and also racialised
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
665
occupation. Women from the mining community generally have relatively high levels
of education, certainly higher than women in rural areas, and despite their
indigenous origins and bilingual language use, they see themselves as being part of
the urban mestizo nation-building project. They are aware of the fact that mining
sustained Bolivia’s economy for centuries and are proud of the contributions made by
their particular community to the country’s development. Despite the fact that their
origins two or three generations ago often stretch back into rural communities, they
construct differences between themselves and people of rural origins, on the grounds
of modernity, education achievements, access to material culture and ‘general culture’
(Gill 1997; Harris and Albó 1984). Working as domestics would, therefore, involve a
scaling down of their status*as it relates not to the place of residence in Argentina
but to their place of origin (see also Balán 1995)*and is therefore considered less
desirable than the hard work in the garment industry.
Trading, which generally involves following mobile markets (‘ferias’) to different
locations throughout Buenos Aires’ marginal areas, including shanty towns, entails a
different set of issues. Trading is to a great extent undertaken illegally. Despite the fact
that some markets have legal permission to trade, within the market itself there is
usually a mixture of legal and illegal posts. As was already mentioned, migrants find it
increasingly difficult to obtain legal residency documents. Lacking residency and
working permits precludes them from trading legally and they therefore need to
resort to bribing the market organisers as well as the police officers who supervise
markets. This in itself involves some level of risk, as the authorities have the right to
enforce ‘legality’ through raids and they can also confiscate traders’ wares, should the
necessary permits be lacking. The geographical location where these markets take
place and the lack of security means that the street vendors are at a high risk of being
robbed by criminals. Trading therefore involves many risks and the life stories give
evidence of the perpetual cycles of capital accumulation, followed by armed
robberies. This insecurity effectively prevent migrants from planning, saving and
achieving their migration goals.
Taking these factors into account, it is clear that garment sector work presents
many advantages for female migrant workers from this community over other
occupations. It often includes accommodation and meals for recently-arrived
migrants and no daily bus fares. It presents much lower risks of exposure to the
public and the authorities and therefore of being caught as an illegal migrant. It also
does not involve the lowering of one’s status as compared to domestic work.
Conclusion
Gender, ethnicity, class and migration status intertwine to produce specific outcomes
in the host labour market. In this article women’s higher participation in the garment
sector was shown to be the result of complex socio-economic as well as policy
processes. It is clear that social networks do play an important role in the
development of niches, and participation in migrants’ social networks is clearly
666 T. Bastia
gendered. This is explained by the particular characteristics of this migration flow and
the way it has been changing throughout the twentieth century. Social networks are
also influenced by the social relations migrants develop among themselves prior to
migrating, and these were also found to be gendered. The social network analysis
showed that women have lower access to social networks in general but at the same
time they are over-represented in garment work. The data presented suggest that
women are overwhelmingly concentrated in the garment sector because they lack
alternative opportunities. Their lower access to friendship-based social networks is
therefore at least partly to blame for women’s lack of alternatives and choices when it
comes to finding a job.
Social networks are also very dynamic and the qualitative data indicates that
networks built with people outside of their primary community of reference are
particularly important for upward social mobility, as was suggested by Granovetter
(1973) in his essay on the strength of weak social network ties. Following the same
rationale, it is therefore likely that men’s higher access to friendship-based social
networks allows them to diversify their job opportunities and increase their chances
for upward social mobility.
However, the analysis of migrants’ insertion into the Argentine labour market has
suggested that there are other processes that need to be taken into account and that
gendered social networks do not fully explain women’s higher participation rates
within the garment sector. Women’s lower access to friendship-based social networks
could to some degree explain their lack of opportunities for diversifying occupations.
However this in itself cannot be understood without taking into account gendered
labour market segmentation and restrictive migration policies that give migrants
decreasing opportunities for acquiring legal residency and working documents. This
explanation is in line with arguments put forward by Kloosterman et al. (1999) in the
Dutch context, as well as Green (2002) for the Paris garment sector.
Women migrants from this community of ex-miners have few occupational
choices: domestic work, trade or the garment sector. Most of them can only pursue
upward social mobility by undertaking further training. The analysis of women’s
options has shown that their higher participation rates in the garment sector are
explained by the interrelation between the relative advantages this occupation offers
them and the wider socio-economic context migrants need to negotiate. For newlyarrived female migrants, garment work offers the same advantages as live-in domestic
work in terms of accommodation, meals and no commuting costs; but at the same
time it lacks the stigma attached to domestic work. Therefore, it can be concluded
that niching and women’s greater participation within the garment sector can be
explained by the conjunction of gendered labour market segregation, restrictive
migration policies and gendered social networks.
These conclusions are particular to this social group and are historically specific.
One only needs to look at the historical trends outlined at the beginning to
understand the reasons for the current prevalence of male social networks. It is very
likely that, even within the same group of migrants, different social networks will
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
667
emerge as a result of a very different migration context. Migrants’ statements and
observations suggest that a growing number of Bolivian migrants who have returned
from Argentina are investing their assets in a new migration to Spain. These new
migrants are mainly women (see also Gratton, this issue, for Ecuador). It is fair to
expect that the social networks that develop over time as a result of this new
migration to Spain will be qualitatively different from those that Bolivian migrants
made use of in Argentina.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my doctoral supervisors, Dr Jeremy Holland and Dr Helen
Hintjens, for their support, and Marlou Schrover, Ivan Light and Joanne van der
Leun, as well as the anonymous JEMS referee, for their useful comments. This article
is based on research undertaken for a doctoral degree and was financed by the
University of Wales Swansea and its Centre of Development Studies as part of a
project of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). I am grateful
to both institutions for their financial support. However, the research on which this
article is based would not have been possible without the many people who opened
up their lives and homes to me in Cochabamba and Buenos Aires; they will remain
anonymous to protect their confidentiality of the information they provided. Special
acknowledgement goes to my hermana mayor who welcomed me into her family and
her community, carried out the survey and provided logistical help throughout the
fieldwork, including access to other migrants.
Notes
[1]
[2]
Qualitative data and participant observation showed that, among returnees, 12 years old was
the youngest age at which a person migrated for work. It was therefore unlikely that anyone
younger than 12 would have migrated for work either as part of the family or independently.
Many references mention the participation of Bolivians in the garment sector (Benencia and
Karasik 1995; Courtis 2000; Mugarza 1985; Recchini de Lattes 1988), but do not provide
detailed information regarding their relative importance. Koreans have entered the garment
sector since the 1980s (Courtis 2000).
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