BEING A WAITER IN THE METROPOLIS: MIGRATIONS, WORK AND SOCIAL NETWORKS OF PETER-SEGUNDENSES IN SÃO PAULO (1980-2010)
migration; labour; sociabilty; memories
This master thesis seeks to analyze the experiences of waiters from Pedro II, a rural municipality located in the north of Piauí, who migrated to the metropolis of São Paulo in search of better living and working conditions, starting in 1980. The perspective is to understand the economic and social reasons for the phenomenon, but mainly the actions of the subjects present in the displacements, focusing on their expectations, articulations and strategies, developed within the networks of sociability shared with family members and fellow countrymen. The narrative constructed about a backward rural environment with no prospects contributes to these young people leaving home, with the promise of a successful life and fortune in the metropolis that inspired progress and modernization. However, the marginalization of rural populations is also conditioned by the scourges in large cities. We seek to problematize the cosmopolitan scenario of São Paulo and its restaurants, which do not guarantee better economic experiences for migrant workers, but rather segregate, exploit and reinforce the ills and inequalities that structure capitalist society. To this end, we used local newspapers from the 1980s, which reported on the economic and climate crisis in Piauí, contextualizing the reasons for the expulsion of the rural population. On the other hand, with the aim of understanding migration as a constitutive practice of the social reproduction of the families of Pedro II, and seeking to report how these individuals deal with their social situations and the issue of work, we used the methodology of Oral History and semi-structured interviews with migrants in São Paulo and those who returned.