Week 7

Mujeres Migrantes Creando Estrategias frente a las Violencias

Encuentro de Experiencias

Back in June 7th, Alianza por la Solidaridad organized an event under the name Migrant Women as Political Subjects: Creating Strategies Against Violence. Carried out with the support of the Ayuntamiento de Madrid, the conference took place at the Cultural Center La Corrala de Lavapiés, aimed at exchanging, weaving networks and strengthening the exercise of migrant women’s labor and human rights by raising awareness of their plights to the general public.

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The event featured the participation of several women whose backgrounds encompassed academics, activism, politics, journalism and legislation. In order to foster an intersectional dialogue that followed thematic cohesion, the event was divided into two tables. The first one approached mobility and migration from a legal-historical perspective, in order to establish a context from which to explore case studies. The first table included:

• Jara Henar, a migration specialist from Alianza por la Solidaridad, who presented on the status quo of migratory policy around the world;
• Helena Maleno, a human rights activist at Walking Borders whose expertise is on migration, particularly regarding Moroccan women in transit to Spain;
• Celia Medrano, the Regional Projects program director at CRISTOSAL, a human rights organization working to advance human rights in Central America, who spoke about violence-driven migration in the Northern Triangle.

The second table featured a more hands-on approach to understanding the obstacles faced in the experiences of migrant women. Again, the table featured three prominent voices in the push for more legal recognition and equal human rights for migrants, as well as an additional panelist who presented a successful campaign strategy:

• Carolina Elías, president of SEDOAC, who addressed the issues faced by domestic workers in Spain;
• Danae García, lawmaker at SOS Racismo Madrid, who outlined effective ways to deal with structural racism in our contemporaneity;
• Rita Bosaho, the first Afro-Spanish woman to serve in Congress, who listed the challenges that racialized minorities face within public institutions;
• Victoria Villanueva, the Director of the Manuela Ramos Movement in Perú, who participated in the Déjala Decidir  (“Let her choose”) campaign against gender-based violence and the de-criminalization of abortion in the Andean country. 

Here you can read the program for the event: (06.07) 1. Programa Mujeres Migrantes

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The analysis provided by the speakers, which relied not only factual data but anecdotes and personal narratives, resulted in a strong assertion of the idea that migrant women are political subjects with agency, strongly contending the view of this group as victims, or as any other negative stereotype. The intersectionality of the conference–which ended up playing out as a workshop–framed the plights of these women as seen through the scope of gender subordination and racist violence. These were operationalized by the individual practices of the panelists, all of whom attempt to obtain their rightful access to the city by shifting paradigms and breaking stereotypes. This conference gave the floor to voices that are systematically silenced.  

Having SEDOAC and their president Carolina Elías participate in these events not only demonstrates the growing voice of this association, but the prominence of their leadership in the real of social justice for migrants. Her intervention encapsulates the fighting spirit of SEDOAC’s–and migrant women’s–enterprise: 

“Foreigners are the majority of the people employed in the domestic work, which is also an invisibilized profession. In my neighborhood of Usera in Madrid, there is not a single domestic worker registered in the Social Security. The public assumes that we want to clean toilets since we are children, but our work, which is that of a caregiver, is severely under-appreciated. If men did this work, they would have already created the University of Ironing. […] You needed hands for your workforce, but were not expecting that real people were arriving.”

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Collective action is embodied by the intersectionality found in the panelists of this event. As Ms. Elías stated during her intervention, SEDOAC was founded after a group of women realized that they faced the same difficulties in the job market and that society made them fight against similar strains: the same obstacles, the same discrimination, the same challenges. But the association was founded, not on the acknowledgement of their vulnerability, but rather on their shared desire to fight and transform their situation. This initiative to create solidarity linkages has created a robust network of likeminded citizens who organize to better implement solutions of them and their peers.  

The symbolic importance that the organizer of this event, Alianza por la Solidaridad, must be emphasized. As a civil society organization, they facilitate the creation of alliances between these underprivileged and underrepresented sectors. Operating under the premise that cooperation makes it possible to correct inequalities at their root causes and transform society in a long-lasting way, Alianza has been able to implement sustainable development projects and raise awareness of human rights in more than 10 countries around the world. The platform that Alianza provides is fundamental for organization like SEDOAC to find solace in its of distress, unconditional support in times of action, and most importantly, encouragement at all times.