Getting to the poor cousin's house: Parenting experiences of Venezuelan migrant mothers in Medellín (Colombia)

Abstract

Objective: The research article presents the findings of a study on the parenting experiences of Venezuelan migrant mothers who live in the Nueva Villa de la Iguaná neighborhood of the city of Medellín (Colombia). In this work, Colombia is considered the poor cousin of Venezuela. The connotation of a poor cousin's house is understood as a place of refuge, which in addition to sharing a border with Venezuela, also shares conditions of social inequality, situations of poverty, and experience of adverse circumstances such as drug trafficking and violence between guerrillas, paramilitaries and the State. In that sense, this study understood that the domestic space is a political issue, as it is related to the individual and family rights of women in vulnerable conditions.

Method: This was a qualitative study that allows an approach to social realities through the narratives of people's subjective experiences in specific contexts. From this approach, everyday life and interactions between participants and researchers are valued. The method was phenomenological in nature and guided the analysis of the subjective experience of 15 women who are part of a psychosocial care project led by one of the authors. These women were invited to participate in 5 focus groups to discuss the recognition of the social, political, economic, and sex-gender forces that crosscut their experiences. The focus group consists of a group strategy coordinated by the researchers, using questions or statements that provoke comments from the attendees. Dialogues between them are highlighted to prevent the focus group from becoming a group interview. With the same group, 5 meetings were held to deepen each topic a perspective of the parenting experiences amid their situation as a migrant family in Colombia. Synthetically, the themes for each focus group were: territory; living arrangements during the pandemic; domestic space, and mothers' parenting experience. Each mother's verbalization was freely allowed without a limited time since the objective was to address the suggested topic. Participant observation was also privileged, and the way to systematize the observation material was through the diary or memo. The transcriptions of the recordings were added to this material for analysis based on a categorical system that guided the presentation of results. The categories were: migratory context and domestic space, to identify the characteristics of the forms of housing, socio-spatial conditions, and aspects of migratory experiences at a transnational level; uncertainty regarding the future and the parenting process, which refers to issues that question life possibilities in the short and medium term and the effects of this on the care of children; Survival and upbringing in contexts of drug trafficking and violence, alludes to the narratives of struggle and situations that required changes in the relationships with the territory and the direction in the education of children.

Results: From the first theme, migratory contexts of poverty stand out, both in the country of origin and in the place where they arrive. Hence, it is a process affected by economic, political, and social conditions that only differ in some specific aspects about the place of arrival. The domestic space is affected precisely because there are fewer guarantees in a country where they arrive without employment and with difficulties in formalizing the documentation that would facilitate access to legal work contracts and health.

Although Colombia has taken some measures in this regard, there are still violations of the rights of these people due to their status as migrants. In the case of the La Iguaná neighborhood, in Medellín, there are situations of overcrowding or inadequate infrastructure for living, especially because the buildings are located next to a river passage, which grows during the rainy season. Food insecurity is also a constant challenge due to difficulties in cooking or buying food, greatly affecting children in their development processes. The time of the Covid-19 pandemic further complicated these conditions, and after being overcome, with fewer difficulties, but still in conditions of vulnerability, the mothers warn of the constant challenges they must face in a neighborhood characterized by the logic of micro-trafficking and unsafety. Regarding homes, the spaces and objects are designed to achieve the mobility project, despite the multiple difficulties and precarious conditions of the domestic space. Added to this are unemployment, lack of access to the health system, the absence of a support network, and daily experiences in a patriarchal culture that exposes them to multiple violations in contexts of violence and micro-trafficking that alter their upbringing experiences. Uncertainty inevitably threatens family projects, in some cases wanting to return to Venezuela or, failing that, resigning themselves to look for countries with better opportunities, regardless of whether it costs them their lives. Also relevant is the social criticism that they perceive regarding the use and abuse of illegal psychoactive substances, a daily part of the context they inhabit, and from which they constantly try to distance themselves, stressing much of the time how they experience the processes of raising their children.

Conclusions: Based on the narratives of migrant women in this context, attention is drawn to how multiple conditions of vulnerability are interconnected, making the analysis of the migration phenomenon in a country with characteristics like the country of origin more complex. Hence, an intersectional reading of migration is necessary, prioritizing women for their multiple tasks of care and economic support, broadening the understanding of the phenomenon, and revealing structural problems such as violence, poverty, and drug trafficking that characterize migration to the poor cousin. The study focused on the description of these difficulties, many of which should be a reason for raising awareness on the part of the receiving country not only to improve public policies and the design of reception programs but also to share them with society day after day.

The double suffering of this social group is evident, without forgetting the people who in Colombia have also suffered multiple violations of their human rights due to other identity characteristics.