Uma etnografia sobre as práticas de saúde dos imigrantes bolivianos na cidade de São Paulo

Abstract

Weinert, T.S. An ethnography about the Bolivian immigrants’ health practice in Sao Paulo. 2015. Dissertation – Faculdade de Saude Publica da USP, Sao Paulo, 2015. The Bolivian immigration to Sao Paulo started in the beginning of 1950’s, when Brazil and Bolivia placed a cultural interchange program. Bolivians migrate to Brazil looking for better conditions of life and, when arriving, they usually end up working in textile manufacturing companies under considerably precarious work conditions, almost under slavery regime. It is not known the exact amount of Bolivian immigrants, however researches agree that, currently, Sao Paulo is the most common destiny and that the majority of the immigrants that has been arriving in Brazil are Bolivians. Bolivian immigrants are, many times, made apart of the society and excluded of social life, in terms of having no guarantee of universal rights, and their access to health services are frequently more difficult due to cultural issues. It is remarkable that the social structure is extremely important on the relation with the social suffering understood as humiliation, shame and lack of recognition -, which has no visibility once it is inscribed inside the subjectivity and there is no collective sharing. Such kind of suffering is more frequent on the contemporaneity, once there is an excessive veneration to the individualism, an increase of a pseudo meritocratic ideal, where there is the illusion that everyone has opportunities to succeed in the society – to overcome their social level, to have an economical freedom to fulfill their consumption while the social system do not stand that everyone ascend like this. The proposal is to understand about the Bolivian immigrants’ health care practices relating with the access to health service, starting on their understanding on health and what, for them, is related to it: medication, welfare, process health-sickness, equipments and health care professionals. The present study is an ethnography developed with Bolivian users of Health Primary Unit Jd. Japao, in Vila Maria, Sao Paulo district. A qualitative study that drew on participant observation and semi-structured interviews to be developed. Found out that the work on Bolivian immigrant’s life sustains and marks all other events in life, it is the central axle. During the most part of the time, they are working and it is an obstacle to have fun or take care of their own health. They understand that health is being fine to be able to work, it is being able to resist to what could destroy them. They feel respected by the health professionals, but not taken care. When in Bolivia they did not go to the doctor or to health services, the care was taken with herbs, leaves, allopathic medicines. They do not have too many health care practices, just some related to food. It became strongly evident the matter of gender in familiar relationships and the violence towards woman by intimate partner, suggesting as possibility in future studies to get deeper in this matters. As well the conditions of Bolivian’s Brazilian born children.