Leyes migratorias y representaciones sociales: el caso argentino

Abstract

This article enquires into the discursive narratives regarding migrants, taking as its starting point an analysis of the Argentinian case. It examines Argentina´s policies about migration and discusses them with the data produced during this research. Data includes interviews with more than fifty persons who worked at the Justice Department in Buenos Aires’s Metropolitan Area. Both materials-- the migration laws and these interviews-- are subjected to qualitative analysis, by using Atlas.ti software. It is clear from the analysis that the complexity of social representations lie beyond the government’s will. Thus, despite changes in regulations, perceptions about migrants as threatening subjects persist. Such impressions about the “other” remain in a latent state or may be more visible and explicit according to the political context, sometimes in opposition to all the evidence in the contrary.