Whiteness and Migration. Racial Privileges in Argentinian Mobility to Spain

In this paper we present an incipient research project aimed to investigate the migratory trajectories of Argentinians in Spain, in order to understand how ‘whiteness’ operates in terms of privileges in the migratory context. These privileges can be based on certain racial markers –one of which may be the passport– but also other less evident or immaterial ones, associated with the constructions of status, class and gender in relation to whiteness. The starting hypothesis is that Argentineans’ presence in Spain is marked by privilege (in relation to other migrants from Latin America or the global South) showing the persistence of social hierarchisation processes based on the coloniality of power, and supported by different material and symbolic markers. We suggest that those who identify themselves and/or are identified as part of ‘white Argentina’ do not experience situations of racial discrimination in their migratory journeys, or even neither see themselves as migrants, as do other racialised Latin American groups such as black or indigenous people.

The theoretical framework that will guide the enquiry is based in coloniality of power postulates, from a transnational (Anthias, 2012) and intersectional (Hill Collis, 2015) point of view. Methodologically we adopt the biographical approach (Bertaux, 1990) as a perspective to analyse the trajectories of people who move (or have moved) between Argentina and Spain (or other European countries). We will analyse the different labour, social and family positions in origin, during transit or until they settle in a destination. The goal is to understand how racial markers/devices related to whiteness operate in these trajectories, as well as the meanings attributed by individuals to migration and the changes it brings. We also seek to understand how class/social origin, gender and generational differences operate in their ways of experiencing ‘otherness’ signed by the mobilities to Europe.