The city and transnational migrations: a socio-political cartography of migrants in São Paulo in the 21st century

Abstract

This research is about transnational migrations, focusing on the city and the production of urban spaces. Assuming as main research procedure the reconstruction of the life trajectories of different groups of transnational migrants who arrived in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (RMSP) in the last decade, it is intended, in general terms, to understand the relation of these people to the urban space, highlighting them sociability and relationships networks built in the city. In particular, the focus will be directed to the socio-institutional networks that gravitate around them. From this perspective, it is important to investigate the different mechanisms of control and management of migratory flows, which involves examining how the different categories and statutes granted to migrants affect their destinations in the city, their possibilities of movement and access to city resources, as well as tensions, conflicts or accommodations with state or parastatal agencies involved in migratory issues. We work with the hypothesis that the presence of these migrants in the city, in the case of São Paulo (capital and metropolitan region), affects urban dynamics in modalities that are interesting to ascertain, at the same time that this presence implies in the construction of a multiform political field, as a field of action, intervention, conflicts and also accommodation, alliances and convergences (punctual or not) with other inhabitants of the city. Following these various pathways, it is intended to design a social and political cartography of these new migrants in São Paulo. The research aims to combine the theoretical perspectives of Sandro Mezzadra with that of Nina Glick Schiller: with Mezzadra, we learn that the management of mobility occurs as processes of subjection of migrants, without neglecting the fact that where there is control, resistances practices occur, that is, multiple practices of subjectivation of migrants, unfolding in the construction of transnational social spaces, where there are diverse interactions between migrants of varied origins with the inhabitants of the localities. From Schiller, we emphasize the importance of the city scale to think about the modes of incorporation of the migrants, bypassing an approach that falls to methodological nationalism. Carrying out a sociopolitical cartography of migrants in São Paulo seeks to rebuild the network of institutions, the fields of intervention of different and varied natures, that are mobilized in the city around the migratory issue. It also means dealing with the situated variation of scales inscribed in the modes of circulation and installation of these migrants; a variation of scales that is also part of the frictions, conflicts, demands and claims that shape the political landscape of these transnational spaces and localities that have come to form the urban fabric of the city. (AU)