Itineraries crossed by migrant women in São Paulo: building life in the city

• Grant number: 10/13266-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: April 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Maria da Penha Costa Vasconcellos
• Grantee: Ana Cecilia Andrade de Moraes Weintraub
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to comprehend how immigrant women build, in the space of the city of São Paulo, interpersonal relationships, negotiations with the institutions they are dealing with, support and social networks, resulting in a new way of living their lives. Method: From a contact with one of the religious institutions that offer a shelter to foreign women in São Paulo, five inhabitants of this house were contacted and followed on their routine activities around the city. Those women were three asylum seekers, one 'economic migrant' and one ex-prisoner. This proposal made possible the construction of an ethnography and a participant observation of the itineraries undertaken by them in the city. Conclusions: those itineraries undertaken by them and followed by the research showed different forms of strategies and social relationships made by those women in the city. In general, they showed their resistance to occupy the only place of "victims" or "criminals" that some institutions and groups would preferably give them and, at the same time, they showed their will and effort to rebuild an autonomous life in São Paulo.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

WEINTRAUB, Ana Cecilia Andrade de Moraes. Itineraries crossed by immigrant women in São Paulo: building life in the city. 2012. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP/CIR) São Paulo.