Laços sociais e retenção: um estudo de migração

Abstract

The transformations that take place in a social group due to the displacement in space have been the object of numerous works both in sociology and anthropology. In the case of Brazil, migration studies have become a special field of reflection for social scientists interested in observing the formation of social networks, migrants' adaptations to urban life, work, etc., always emphasizing continuities and changes within the group studied. In the case of this work, the focus of the analysis, benefiting from this bibliographical tradition, turns however to the internal factors that allow the group a certain social cohesion. In other words, my interest here concerns the contents of the social connections established among migrants that allow them to stay in the city and make it (im)possible for them to return to their place of origin. The research was carried out among migrants established in Belém for approximately 20 years; I investigated their current living conditions in the city, their representations around their trajectory, in addition to field research in their contexts of origin. The trends found in this particular case point to a valorization of social ties founded on new experiences of urban life that, connected to an "ideology of retention," has resulted in the persistence of the group in the city once they make the decision to migrate.