Entrefolhense ausente frente a América radicalizada: trajetórias de migração internacional a partir do Vale do Rio Doce - MG

Abstract

Interested in the experience of transnational displacement in the face of tensions in North American migration policies since 2016, this research aimed to analyze the migration processes of residents of the Rio Doce Valley region, historically marked by the flow of migrants to the United States. By investigating how international emigrants, originating from the municipality of Entre Folhas, have been conducting transnational projects, I examine how they have been reconstructing identities and social practices in the face of migration restrictions. Observing the trajectory from Brazil to the outside world, I seek to analyze these practices of international mobility as a succession of "over exertions" in the quest to overcome the economic and structural limitations of the region of origin, which are part of the realm of possibilities for the region's inhabitants. Using a qualitative methodology, we analyzed reports, photographs, documents, and narratives gathered through participant observation in Entre Folhas, in virtual environments, as well as through interviews with interlocutors from Entre Folhas who work and live in Filadelfia. I present the research findings based on two axes: walkscapes and lifelines. This study emphasizes the procedural dimension of the immigrant condition, where walkscapes embody places constructed from this extreme form of walking, and lifelines that weave trajectories in a scenario of legal, economic, and social instability. The results demonstrate that the processes analyzed are not individual responses, but rather migratory technologies and strategies that generate continuous reinterpretations of the migrant condition. Techniques for accessing the outside world, conditioned by legal restrictions, impact migrant lives in experiences that strain their dignity and sociability, generating a condition of permanent apprehension in dynamics that persist in the face of escalating antiimmigrant sentiment in the destination country.