As other border migratory flows that intensified in the main cities of Argentina since 1990 onwards, those of the Bolivians suggest an eminently work sourced migration. These immigrants, in most cases, entered the country illegally and inserted themselves into the flexible labor market, taking up precarious jobs in the informal economic field. The ethnographical research that I have been conducting addresses the complexity of the health/disease/care processes of Bolivian immigrants in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area focusing on the sufferings, diseases, pains and ailments they have in our society. This paper is based on a specific case within the range of migration processes of Bolivians in Argentina: the young men and women, originally recruited through transnational networks of trafficking with persons, which were reduced to servitude illegally in order to work in clandestine textile workshops. Recognizing the complex dimensions of analysis that interact in this process of structural violence and social suffering, we particularly focus on the social vulnerability contexts and health risks as a consequence of their work and living conditions in workshops. We identify the diverse health problems these conditions cause, among which tuberculosis infection and transmission. Moreover, the lack of documentation due to their irregular migration status in addition to the prohibition to go out from the workshop restrict ?when it is not denied as it happens with all their other rights- their right to health care. Their vulnerable situation is enhanced by their status of migrators which submit them to stereotyping and stigmatization.

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Tuberculosis,inmigrantes bolivianos,talleres textiles clandestinos,Buenos Aires,social vulnerability,structural violence