La migración

Algunas significaciones imaginarias

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of the migration of illegal Mexican workers (namely residents from the Mexican State of Guanajuato) to the United States, from a standpoint of conceiving it as a social institution and from the perspective of Cornelius Castoriadis. It sets forth the idea of listening to the discourse of migrants and their relatives, which feature components that are related to the imaginary social meanings that in turn define the forenamed institution of migration, for example the individual and collective forms of subjectivity. For that matter, it distances itself from the classic forms of approaching the migratory experience, meaning the economic or demographic analysis. It identifies some imaginary figures that are derived from the very way in which the research is carried out, such as what is called secularized sacred pilgrimage, which tries to describe some of the directions for the research of the mythical dimensions that accompany the act.