From the metropolis to the chacra. New migrations to El Soberbio (Misiones, Argentina)

Abstract

In El Soberbio, a town located in the central east of Misiones, on the border with Brazil, the most varied migrations are combined. At present, Alto Uruguay is witnessing a novel flood of middle classes leaving the metropolis in a quest for a new calmer life and in greater contact with ‘nature’. The main purpose of this work is to make more complex studies on neo-ruralism in Argentina through a case study that has not yet been explored: the mobility of the metropolitan population to Misiones that settles in the center-east of the province. From a socio-anthropological approach and through the ethnographic-based qualitative methodology, we carry out in-depth interviews, non-directed interviews and participant observation among “recently arrived” metropolitan migrants. The collected data allowed the elaboration of a classification of actors and positions through the formulation of different ‘identification repertoires’, an analytical strategy that allows to know in depth the way in which the agents associate the resources incorporated throughout their biographical trajectory. This classification repertoire will allow the reader to identify more easily who these migrants are and what they are looking for at their destination.