Debates and Classification Struggles Regarding the Representation of Migrants Workers

This article focuses on the ways in which migrants from the countryside were represented in the late 1980s and early 1990s, at a time when migration was becoming a major topic of public debate. Basing his argument on a close study of daily and weekly press articles, scientific journals, and reportage literature published between 1986 and 1991, he shows how a struggle has developed over the way the migratory movements are represented, and how it is articulated around an unresolved duality, namely the state and the market economy. The central issue in this controversy is the legitimacy of the migrants’ presence in the towns, and this involves redefining the social and geographical hierarchy. The author also shows in historical terms how certain categories and labels like “blind migrant” have come into being; they participate in developing areas of state intervention (1)