“Entre la estigmatización y la restricción”. Políticas migratorias y discursos políticos sobre familia, migración, género y generación en países de inmigración y emigración: España y Colombia

This article explores the ways of thinking about links between family, migration and integration – as well as gender relations across them - in Spain as a country of immigration and Colombia as a country of emigration. It offers a review of the process of how migrant families become a social problem at both ends of the migratory chain. In the European countries, over the past two decades, family reunification is no longer a right and has become a prerogative of the State, which can be accessed by meeting certain economic and cultural requirements. At the same time, in Colombia since the beginning of the 21st century and due to the increase of women migration to Europe, a social and political discourse presenting migration as producer of family breakdowns took hold. In both cases, women and the younger generations are at the core of discourses and public debates about family and migration. After a brief introduction, the article reviews the European political and economic context in which family-related migration began to be problematized and restricted. Specifically, it deals with linkages between migration, family and gender in policies and public discourses at the State and regional level in Spain. Subsequently the case of Colombian migration is addressed. After a brief account of the latest academic publications on family migration, the text ascertains the ways of thinking about connections between migration, family, gender and generation in Colombian public policies. Finally, in the last remarks, some consequences of female migration stigmatization and restrictions for family migration on the lives of migrants and their families are highlighted