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Signs of origin and profession: Peruvian domestic workers in Brasilia

The present article analyzes how does a group of Peruvian women, domestic workers, experience their migratory experience in Brasilia. The analysis is made in an interactional perspective – with an emphasis on the spheres of gender, ethnicity and class – trying to understand the social integration processes of those migrants in a city with unique urban and historical characteristics in Brazil and in that region. The in-depth interviews allow us to reflect on how they explain their integration with the city, the everyday life at work; that is, we analyze how do they produce their life space in migration. We are able to establish, in that condition of migration to work, a range of elements that compete for the production of that space: cultural and social origin, social gender relations inside and outside the family nucleus, among others. We identified a strong lack of honor and an absence of social esteem associated by the migrants themselves to the profession of domestic worker.

Peruvian Women; Brasilia. Domestic Work; Routine Interactions


Universidade Federal da Bahia - Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas - Centro de Recursos Humanos Estrada de São Lázaro, 197 - Federação, 40.210-730 Salvador, Bahia Brasil, Tel.: (55 71) 3283-5857, Fax: (55 71) 3283-5851 - Salvador - BA - Brazil
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