Paper short abstract:

The aim of this study is to analyze the feelings of belonging of Argentinean’s migrants in Barcelona taking into account gender subjectivities. Findings show that feelings for Buenos Aires and Barcelona are different according to gender subjectivities and their meaning of the relation with each place.

Paper long abstract:

The catastrophic situation lived by Argentineans during the economic, social and political crisis of 2001, led some of them to migrate, mainly to Spain. There are few studies on Argentinean migration and even less those taking into account the subjectivities of migrants. The aim of this study is to analyze the feelings of belonging of Argentineans migrants in Barcelona taking into account gender subjectivities. To understand the construction of their multiple belonging (Barcelona and Buenos Aires), this study is considering what meaning has for migrants the relation with both places. In depth interviews and participant observations were conducted in Barcelona among Argentineans who migrated in couple. All the interviewed had migrated with their children or had children after migration. Preliminary findings show that the meaning of the relation that migrants have with each place is different depending on gender subjectivities. On the one hand, Argentina is for them the family, the friends but it is also the place where they have no hope. On the other hand, Barcelona is the place where they have a future but it is also the place where they may feel prejudice and where they miss their friends and relatives. According to their gender subjectivity all of them express contradictory feelings for both places (anger, hope, happiness, sadness, loneliness, pessimism, culpability). The feelings experienced by Argentinean migrants demonstrate the complexity of the construction of the feelings of belonging and the importance to take into account the way people are attached to places from a gendered perspective.