Donne migranti tra Perù e Italia: genere e orientamento sessuale nel farsi dell'esperienza

This thesis presents an analysis of the changing constructions of gender and sexual orientation within the frame of female migration from Peru to Italy, in particular from Lima to Milan. My transnational and multi-sited ethnography follows the path of some women and the histories of some family networks, their cognitive horizons and their different contexts of belonging. I carried out research into the continuities and discontinuities of migrations within Peru and internationally towards Milan: the ethnographic and bibliographic materials, as well as the interviews, have been interpreted connecting up the historical, political and socio-economic contexts with mindscapes, as for instance “sexscapes”. My work tried to grasp the complexity of social reality by considering the intersections of class, social status and race, that are connected to processes of self-adscription and hetero-adscription both in the country of origin and in the country of destination. The practices acted out and narrated by the participants are to be viewed in the scenario of globalization: the pressures of the current capitalist market and the tightening up of legal procedures for migrants contribute to the emigration of women as domestic workforce in the big cities of the North of the world. The ideal of progresar and migration for work provide justification for the migration of many women, but if we look more closely other reasons appear. Indeed the women’s search for new opportunities aims not only at improving their economic status but also at bringing about changes in their female roles and in the ways they assume their sexuality, lesbian or heterosexual; moreover it regards the quest for “knowledge”, that is, emotional, relational and cultural enrichment. Gender and sexuality affect people’s choices and their social trajectories, giving cause and shape to migration, work dynamics, relocations, family networks, relationships within families and between generations, as well as friendship and associations, in which gender and sexual orientation constructions are continually renegotiated. In Milan the lack of State support for migrants forces women to rely on family and community networks, where they question the dynamics of power between genders, infringing upon and reshaping social norms. Lesbianism is not considered legitimate either in Italy or in Latin-American environments, but I could observe creative reactions by Peruvian lesbians in Milan. Moreover gender and sexuality become sites of political struggles where different ideas of power, identity, personhood, citizenship and nation come into play. The growing visibility of LGBTQ people and the legitimation of the autonomy of women give rise to new identities, to the reconfiguration of power dynamics between genders, and to the decrease of the coercive power of heterosexuality.