Negotiating Migrant Identities: Young People in Bolivia and Argentina

Abstract

In rural Bolivia, like many rural areas of the majority world, there are few opportunities for permanent employment and most young people do not have access to their own land. Consequently, many young people in southern Bolivia migrate seasonally to Argentina and their migratory experience provides them with a sense of collective identity during periods spent within their home community. It also enables them to access consumer goods as well as to continue to maintain interdependent family ties by contributing financially to their households. This paper, based on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Bolivia, considers the positive and negative ways in which the young migrant identity offers young people alternative youth transitions as well as enhances their social and economic autonomy.