Alterity and immigration: intersecting gender, race and class

• Grant number: 11/51969-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2012
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Miriam Debieux Rosa
• Grantee: Ilana Mountian
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims at developing the debate around the immigrant focusing on the discursive position of the other. For this aim, this research will map the notion of the other for psychoanalysis, post-colonial studies and gender studies (feminist research and queer studies), in order to critically analyse the discursive position of the other from these perspectives. The theme of immigration has been researched in a number of disciplines in social sciences, and more recently, by psychology. Although the immigration is not a new historical phenomenon, new forms of immigration has been noted in international and national contexts, such as in the city of Sao Paulo. Studies point out the need to develop research on the encounter between immigrants and hosting countries, as dynamics of exclusion and inclusion occur. It is from this encounter that the discursive position of the immigrant is established, a position that we name as the 'other', that is, that one that is not us'. A range of critical studies utilize the notion of the other for the analysis of social justice and the acknowledgement of the other, I highlight here the Foucaultian studies, feminist studies, post-colonial studies and psychoanalysis. The development of the notion of the other in psychoanalysis marks out differences regarding these other perspectives, while it provides important insights for critical studies. The notion of the other is crucial for studies on immigration, as it is related to a specific discursive position given to the immigrant, producing a series of repercussions in the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion of the subject, who is commonly reified in the discourses of the victim, exotic and threat. (AU)