Neither Natives nor Nationals in Brazil: The ‘Indianisation’ of Bolivian Migrants in the City of São Paulo

Abstract

Bolivian migrants in Brazil are commonly categorised as ‘indians’ who are ‘enslaved’ in São Paulo's garment industry. Simultaneously, self-identified indigenous peoples in Brazilian urban centres are constantly challenged as to the authenticity of their claims to indigeneity. This article explores the racialisation of migrants based on an ethnography of two Bolivian street markets in São Paulo, as social and spatial mobilities articulate race and class hierarchies. It proposes that such racialisation is entrenched in colonial socio-spatial hierarchies that continue to represent indigenous peoples as excluded from humanity, modernity and the city, reinforcing their subaltern insertion in the labour market.