“Estoy arme y arme, arme y arme”

Peruvian migrant women's strategies in the face of labor and spatial segregation

Abstract

Peruvian migrant women residing in Córdoba, Argentina, encounter a segregated labor market, which confines them to paid care work: domestic cleaning services and care of the elderly or children. Setting up a stand at the Feria de los Patos appears as a Sunday option that allows them to increase their income while sharing with family and friends. We propose to reconstruct the labor and family trajectories of the female fair vendors in order to identify the strategies they deploy to support their family group. For this purpose, observant participation is our main tool. We seek to accompany the fair participants in different spaces that they invite us to, beyond the Fair.

Labor and spatial segregation have repercussions in their lives. The Fair is presented as an alternative or complement to paid domestic work and as a more flexible option, which can be filtered among other jobs. Most of the fair women are single-parent families, in which their children's schooling is a priority. They often adapt their work schedules to school time, investing money and time in their children's studies. Education and self-employment are emerging as tools to overcome labor market barriers.