Fuerza de la vida: Returning migrant women with physical disabilities and caregivers of migrants

Fuerza de la vida: Returning migrant women with physical disabilities and caregivers of migrants

The book “Fuerza de la vida: Mujeres migrantes retornadas con discapacidad física y cuidadoras de migrantes” was organized by Nyzelle Juliana Dondé (MSc) and is the second volume in the series Caminando con migrantes. In this second volume, we sought to give visibility to the theme of women and migration, a phenomenon known as the feminization of migration, by showing the main challenges and vulnerabilities faced in their daily lives by returned migrant women with disabilities and carers of returned migrants with disabilities in Honduras.

In addition to presenting the challenges and vulnerabilities faced by these women, the book shows how the actions and projects of the Pastoral de Movilidad Humana (PMH) help them in the process of overcoming these adversities, promoting emotional healing from the traumas related to migration/return and their autonomy within the community.

The research that gave rise to the book is the result of a collaboration between CSEM (Scalabrinian Center for Migration Studies) and the Pastoral de Movilidad Humana de Honduras (PMH). One of its main objectives was to identify and systematize the actions of the PMH in the promotion of mental health and the protagonism of migrant women with disabilities and women caregivers of migrants with disabilities in Honduras.

The identification of the theme came from a previous CSEM study of returned migrants with disabilities assisted by the PMH. From this first investigation, which gave rise to the book of the first volume of the series Caminando con los Migrantes (Walking with Migrants), it became clear that there was a need for a specific study that would address the gender issue within this population and value pastoral support and actions with women, understanding what it meant to be a woman, a returned migrant, poor and disabled in this social context (Botega, 2022).

The research carried out with the women focused on mental health and the projects that the PMH runs with migrants and migrant caregivers, especially the Women's Support Group (GAM). By following the meetings of the GAM groups and analyzing the 15 interviews produced by the research and conducted with returned migrant women with physical disabilities, female caregivers and agents of the institution, the categories designed to formulate the book emerged and gave rise to the themes worked on in each chapter.

The first chapter, written by Thamires Castelar Torres Sales, is more institutional and methodological in nature. It presents the PMH and the research carried out in collaboration with the CSEM, the projects and actions with women, a brief contextualization of the migration situation in Honduras and describes the methodology of the GAM groups.

The second chapter, written by Barbara Marciano Marques, begins by theoretically recovering the relationship between care, gender and migration and, based on the interviews conducted with the women, shows how migration, gender violence and work overload have impacted on the lives of these women, potentially causing psychological illnesses. The chapter concludes by showing how the GAM groups helped in the process of reconstituting the subjectivity and healing of these women.

The third chapter, written by Rosa Elizabeth Flores Gómez, understands migration as a significant impact, capable of affecting people's lives in different ways, promoting changes in their subjectivities, especially those in whom life has seen its course altered due to an accident caused on the migratory route. In this sense, this chapter seeks to understand the psychosocial categories formulated by these women to resignify their own subjectivity.  

The fourth and final chapter, written by Nyzelle Juliana Dondé, tries to provide an understanding of spirituality based on the everyday experiences of returned migrant women with disabilities and their caregivers. Spirituality, according to the author of the chapter and organizer of the book, is an indispensable protective tool that women rely on, each in their own way, with their particular understanding of the God of spirituality. The author presents spirituality as a protective tool present on the path, on the route and on the return of these women.

Bringing together the perspectives of these four authors, coming from different areas of experience and knowledge, but involved in the research project and committed to the theme of migration, the book “Fuerza de la vida” strives to portray some of the stories and experiences of returned migrant women with disabilities and women caregivers of returned migrants with disabilities in Honduras. Taking into account PMH's indispensable support in the development of projects that enable mental health care and the reconstruction of these women's lives.

References: 

Botega, T. (2022). Pastoral de Movilidad Humana y migrantes retornados con discapacidad. Building paths for reintegrationn. Brasília: CSEM. Available at: https://www.csem.org.br/livros/pastoral-de-movilidad-humana-y-migrantes-retornados-con-discapacidad-construyendo-caminos-para-la-reintegracion/