This paper intends to demonstrate that migratory process results not only from individual choices, but also from social networks (family kingship, friendship), in which men and women are inserted. The work discusses data from fieldwork in Criciúma (SC) and the Boston area, in United States. The data emerged from the interviews and participant observation show that women not only wait for their husbands or children, but also participate in the process, integrating and articulating migration networks. The data also highlighted the changes in the family and gender relationships, suggesting that the migratory process rearticulate these relationships. This study therefore evidences that other factors, along with the ones of economic nature, contribute for the decision of migrating and make the history of this flow. Copyright Σ 2007 by Revista Estudos Feministas.

Brazilian Emgrants international migration Family-Networks Gender

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