Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Martínez Muñoz E, Molina Ruíz HD, García Lirios C and Rincón Ornelas RM
Keywords : Local Development; Employment; Migration; Identity and Sustainability
The
objective of this work was to establish the relationship between conflict and
social change derived from migratory processes in a Huasteca community. Based
on discourse analysis around the journey, stay and return, those related to
molar identity defined as the uses and customs significant for any of the three
migratory processes were weighted. In reference to the socioeconomic context,
identity symbols were interpreted in reference to the tradition of employment,
building of heritage and appropriation of places. The results will make it
possible to establish discussion criteria around migration, identity and local
development. It is expected that the interpretations made can contribute to the
construction of a municipal agenda on employment, health, recreation and
sustainability
The complexity of Xilitla can be explained
from the Psychosocial Theories of Conflict and Change. Water vulnerability, job
insecurity, migratory intensity and resilient identity can be explained from
the Theory of Social Belonging, the Theory of Social Categorization, the Theory
of Social Representation and the Theory of Social Identity.
If Local Development is considered as a
network of water, migratory and labor situations oriented to the resilience of
a community, the Theory of Social Belonging (TPS) would suggest that groups
generate a dynamic such that each of its members seeks to adhere to shared
symbols. It is a process of loyalty not only to the groups to which the
individual belongs, but to the groups to which he wishes to belong. In the
process of adherence to a group, people adjust their decisions and actions to
the norm of a group. The transgression of group principles leads to sanctions
that redirect the adherence of the individual to the group.
However, within each group, asymmetric
power relations are developed that make the conflicts that will define
adherence to the norm unavoidable. In other words, belonging to a group
symbolizes a membership that is renewed each time the conflict defines the
propensity or aversion to the norms which, by the way, are redefined through
asymmetric relationships. The conflict activates the change from one group to
another and with it, the conformity or innovation of the norms. As conflicts
intensify, regulations discourage asymmetries between members. In the course of
time and in the course of the rules, individuals renew their vows to configure
new groups [1-15].
Social psychologists have developed the
Social Categorization Theory (TCS) to explain homogeneity within a group and heterogeneity
in reference to other groups. It is a perceptual bias that explains endogenous
conflict of interest or social change. In the case of regulations, people
adjust their principles, decisions and actions to a group prototype. The
assignment of a role by the group makes the individual more inclined to adhere
to, even defend, the statutes of the reference group. It is about the formation
of an individual's self-concept in reference to the prototypical norm of the
group. In this sense, TCS explains two processes: depersonalization and
ethnocentrism. That is, in their desire to join a group, each individual
reduces their expectations to the norm of a group and exalts the normative
principles of the group to which they belong or want to belong.
Although social categorization explains
cohesion, cooperation and influence, it also explains conflicts of interest and
innovation. The group dynamics is such that it requires constant changes for
its preservation. Conformity guarantees the preservation of values, beliefs,
perceptions, attitudes and even knowledge, but conflict drives the development
of new asymmetric relationships and with it, competition and innovation.
Therefore, a minority is able to dissuade another minority and persuade a
majority.
In summary, the TCS maintains that each
person continuously processes fragmented information about the group, the space
and the resources they have [16-20].
However, such information processing is
biased since the norms of a group are the result of experience and
inexperience. It is the perception of the individual that is in charge of
putting the pieces together and giving it an eminently symbolic meaning of
comparison between the current situation of a group in reference to its
prospective situation and that of other groups.
TPS and TCS are part of a symbolic
communicative process known as social representation. Social psychologists
argue that such a process includes two dimensions: objectification and
anchoring.
In essence, the Theory of Social
Representation (TRS), unlike TPS and TCS, delimits group processes to their
communicative aspects. The asymmetric differences that give rise to the
structuring conflict are considered by the TRS as informational differences
that enhance the beliefs and knowledge of each individual. In this sense, the
conflict would be an antecedent of the change that would consist of
substituting beliefs for knowledge. As conflicts activate internal or external
communication in a group, they reduce the diversity of personal symbols to a few
group meanings and meanings. It is a process of exhaustion of personal beliefs
and their transformation into group knowledge.
Now, the structuring conflict seems to
take place in a peripheral zone of social representations in reference to a
central nucleus in which symbols are constituted in traditions, uses and
customs.
Precisely, the naturalization of symbols
takes place in the figurative nucleus that legitimizes the stigmas towards a
minority group at the same moment that they disappear as a group referent. In
such a process, objectification and anchoring explain the landing of abstract
concepts and their conversion into concrete entities.
In summary, the TRS adequately explains
the information processing that affects the choice of a group, its communication
styles and influence.
Despite the fact that TPS, TCS and TRS
seem to envision the choice of a group, social psychologists have developed the
Theory of Social Identity (SIT) to explain the relationship between situations,
decisions and actions of individuals when choosing the group to which they want
to belong.
Social identity, like belonging,
categorization and representation seems to have two dimensions for its
analysis: self-categorical and hetero-categorial. The first refers to the
identification made by the dominant, majority or minority group, with respect
to their capacities and resources, attributing them to extra properties that
make them different from the other group members. In contrast, the dominated
elements seem to attribute their situation to their abilities. Asymmetric
relationships in a group seem to be explained from the attributions that its
members make of themselves in reference to the other members. The differences
between the two groups, low and high status, seem to be legitimized and
justified based on social identity. The permanence of such internalized
attributions is explained by the internalization that each group makes of the
characteristics attributed to them. A group convinces itself of its
capabilities once it has undermined the version of the other groups that
perceive it.
In communication terms, of a stimulus that
appears as an essential part of different groups, high or low status, there are
two underlying biases: an intra-categorial homogeneity and an inter-categorial
differentiation. On the one hand, the individuals of a group consider that said
communicative stimuli are inexorable to their characteristics, causing them to
be perceived as different from other groups of greater or lesser status [21-35].
However, when communicative stimuli are
perceived as inherent in a group, the consequence is a perception of
illegitimacy, then a structuring conflict is generated that will become a
change in group identity.
In summary, the TPS, TCS, TRS and TIS
explain the conflict that structures the individual as a social actor by
inserting it into the normativity of a group. Said process is limited to the
minority or majority status. The symbols and meanings between the members of a
group seem to be concentrated in a nucleus of representation in which the
objectification, anchoring and naturalization of the information shapes the
status of the group and its corresponding norms. The assignment of a role by
the group homogenizes the identity, but innovation diversifies the normativity
of the groups.
In the case of Xilitla, the exposed
theories would suggest that water vulnerability, job insecurity, migratory
intensity and resilient identity are the result of belonging, categorization,
representation and social identity. In other words, the scarcity of water and
commercial activities explain migration and the issuance of remittances, but
psychosocial processes would suggest that the availability of water and the
commercial activities of Xilitla are the result of conflicts that were structured
in minorities and in majorities to the communities and localities of the
region. Apparently, the normative symbols of the entity that were built within
the Huasteca micro-region, contributed decisively to the Local Development of
Xilitla. In other words, the nucleus of symbolic representation delineated the
axes of the search for opportunities in which migration was a primary
instrument. Once water resources were depleted, agriculture was no longer the
local economic support. Government authorities encouraged tourism and trade
that further compromised the sustainability of the region. In the first
instance, migration was an escape valve and later, it was transformed into an
instrument of resilience. Collaborative networks and remittance nodes were
structured around migratory flows. Once sent to the region, the local economy
reactivated, but at the cost of restructuring the majorities that continued to
practice agriculture and at the cost of exalting the minorities that
diversified the region's trade. Such a process was insufficient to even
preserve the resources compromised by their scarcity. The Xilitla region is in
such a situation that its relationship with nature does not seem to concern it
as long as it does not compromise its uses and customs. In this sense, the
study of the preservation of the environment would indicate the degree of
sustainability, vulnerability and resilience of the region. For this reason, it
is necessary to interpret the discourses that the migrant community of the
Huasteca region expresses in the face of water scarcity, job insecurity and the
search for employment outside the region [35-40].
In this equation c denotes country and t
denotes year. This measure reflects changes in the emigration rate on an annual
basis. One problem with the denominator of the measure is that it does not
consider the emigration of previous immigrants during the previous 20 years,
who are no longer at risk because they have already left. There is no measure
of emigration, so they make no effort to adjust the population at risk. Since
the true population at risk was smaller than our measure of the population at
risk, the actual emigration rates were higher than our estimates.
Design: A qualitative, descriptive, cross-sectional
and exploratory study was carried out.
Participants: A 5 migrants and 5 merchants selected
from the “snowball” technique.
Alterity: Country and city
Identity: Trade, employment, financing, migration,
tourism, technology, transport and housing.
Instrument: Open-ended questionnaire related to the
ten categories. What meaning does the countryside have for you? How do you
imagine the North American city in which a migrant works? How do you negotiate
the purchase or sale of a product or service with migrants, residents or
tourists? Do people prefer their own business to migrate in search of
employment? If someone could lend you a lot of money, what would you use it
for? Why do people prefer to look for work away from their country instead of
going to Mexico City? Why Xilitla will prosper as a magic town and a coffee
grower? What is your opinion of the machines used for planting and harvesting?
How would a tram, metrobus, cable car or metro benefit a community like
Xilitla? Would more tourists come if the community will have modern
transportation?
Coding: Each answer to the questions was analyzed
according to the proximity between symbols, meanings and meanings.
When the interviewees compared the city
with the countryside and related them both to tourism (hotels, plazas,
merchandise) and to migration (hunger, death, thirst, fatigue) or residence
(financing, technology, transportation), it was considered that the structure
of their identity and social alterity started from general categories of comfort
to more specific ones of progress or misery. Such associations were rated with
a value of 1
In contrast, when the categories of
country and city were not related in the responses of the interviewees and
other secondary or peripheral categories did not emanate from them for their
contrast, then it was scored with a value of zero.
Finally, in the cases in which the
interviewees complemented the field category with the city category, but did
not relate them to tourism, residence or migration, then identity and otherness
were considered to be circumscribed to central nodes rather than peripheral
ones. Such sequence was rated with a value of -1, or when the interviewees did
not relate to the categories of city and country, but if they established a contrast
between tourism, residence and migration, then they also obtained a value of -1
Interpretation. Once the responses of the
interviewees were emptied into descriptive matrices, the values were
interpreted in their entirety since they were added according to their order of
representation, which can be from the central node to the periphery (maximum
value of 50 points that reveal a identity ), from the periphery to the central
nucleus (maximum value of -50 points that reveal an alterity ), only the figurative
node (value of zero points that reveal a spurious ) or only the periphery
(value of zero points that also reveal a spurious ). Once the total was
obtained, said value was interpreted due to its proximity to the maximum or
null values established.
For example, if the total sum of the
interviewees were -42 points then it was considered that the speeches of
migrants and merchants imply an identity because the relationship with
otherness is reversed. In contrast, if such value were positive (42 points), then
it would corroborate the hypothesis according to which it is assumed that
otherness fits the information in the context and thereby adapts the discourse
to the imperatives of the migrant experience. Finally, if the total value
approached zero, then it was considered that both identity and otherness would
be influenced by other factors such as attitude, knowledge, perception, memory
or learning [41-45].
The results of the weights for each
identity indicator reached 21 points out of 50 possible. In other words, the
dynamics of labor insertion and subjective well-being is high and therefore
satisfactory. In general terms, the interviews reflect a host of opportunities
that were taken advantage of by their children or acquaintances and had a
favorable impact on the locality.
However, in the speech of the interviewees
a spuriousness predominates (30 speeches out of 50 possible) and identity (29
speeches out of 50 possible) in reference to an alterity (16 speeches out of 50
possible). That is to say, the speeches reflect expectations satisfied at some
point in time, but it is also possible to infer the uncertainty in these
speeches since local job opportunities are increasingly minimal with the return
of migrants and the cheapening of agricultural labor as well as of the products
of the micro-region. In this sense, the concentration of speeches in the past
would reflect the protective and driving shield that individuals acquire when
they join a group that provides or entrusts them with their social-community
capital. Such a situation allows the interviewees to consider that their
personal and family well-being is assured, but the recognition of the work of
other migrant groups allows them to visualize Xilitla as a locality that
employs agricultural labor that emigrates to this demarcation seeking better
pay. .
Precisely, the identity that underlies the
interviews (29 speeches out of 50 possible), reflects the importance of
intersubjective relationships around a paid activity. Although it is true that
the buildings are the product of family dynamics, the buildings in Xilitla are
recognized as the product of the work of a community and its migrants. In this
sense, the identity associated with otherness probably encouraged migration,
employment abroad, return and reintegration among those who decided to cover
the cycle.
Despite the fact that the interviews
reflect discourses of job insertion and very high personal well-being, it
should be noted that the absence of expectations for the future could
discourage the quality of life of the inhabitants of Xilitla. As individuals
enhance their past life, they encourage their prospective acts, but in the
speeches of the interviewees the propensity for the future is absent, although
aversion to the past is non-existent and rather the present, when compared with
the past, reflects a malaise that is not derived from group dynamics, but
rather from the environmental situation that the micro-region is going
through.
In summary, the inhabitants of Xilitla,
inserted in a group of migrants, reflect in their speeches expectations of
satisfaction that were built in the past and that despite the current crisis,
their memories continue to be a reference to understand their job satisfaction,
although their income is increasingly depleted by the environmental crisis. It
is a group and work identity that we could call molar since it turns out to be
significant for the interviewees at the moment of recovering the facts such as
were re-signified by them at the moment of observing a change in their personal
and family well-being.
The
present work, despite using a different methodology to those reported in the
state of the art, complements the findings of Alaminos, et al, (2010) regarding
ethnocentrism. In the present study, molar identity would explain the
defense of uses and customs that, when concretized in lifestyles and
construction of buildings, would indicate the group dynamics that allow the
members of a family to adopt work skills and jobs for preservation of the group
in the particular and the community in general. In this sense, points
out that the social representation of the built spaces not only reflects the
group identity, but also encourages it to change. It is a psychosocial
dynamic in which migrant communities show their intentions to preserve the uses
and customs that differentiate them from other groups [46-55].
However,
Chaca and Arjona (2011) found that ethnocentrism also implies barriers for
local development in crisis situations. In the present work, the environmental
crisis seems to influence the prospective identity of the interviewees,
although the current and introspective identity seems to influence their
discourses of satisfaction and well-being more than discrimination against
minorities that Cristini, et. al, (2011) established in his study with
adolescents to whom the support of their reference group did not reduce their
depressive level. In contrast, the present work established that the
social support of the families and friends of migrants facilitated their
insertion into the labor field and in the case of a return, it would allow
their productive reintegration.
In
both cases, labor insertion and productive reinsertion, security and stability
represent expectations in the young migrant population (Mercado and Nava,
2013). In the present study, endogenous identity, that which is derived
from the decisions of belonging to a family group or friends that prepare the
individual for work, could explain the dynamics of trust and work commitment
that these people develop when they work with their employees relatives and
acquaintances [55-63].
However,
gender differences are for Moreno, et al, (2010) differentiation factors when
explaining work stress. According to the authors, men become stressed in
their work as labor relations become cynical and women reach greater exhaustion
when the levels of demand are very high. In the present
investigation, molar identity would explain the high levels of stress since
mistrust and indiscipline are the product of a molecular identity, one in which
people only limit themselves to a series of acts expecting a benefit. On
the other hand, molar identity would imply an accumulation of meanings that
make work activity a series of voluntary and satisfactory acts.
Based
on such differences and similarities with other studies, it is recommended to
expand the research to the exploration and description of job opportunities in
the service sector since the entity has a natural capital that could be used to
encourage tourism. A study on expository, persuasive and gastronomic
skills would explain the generational change around productivity and job
performance. In this work, molar identity would be a determinant of
competitiveness in the micro-region [64-72].