Surviving strategies in rural family workers

Abstract

The objective of the present investigation was to study families of migrants residing in two neighborhoods of Sertãozinho, in the state of São Paulo, who work in sugar cane fields. Data were collected by interviewing ten families and the interviews were taped and transcribed completely. Also, data were collected by participant observation. The study was an attempt to show how the migrants adapt to the urban medium and the living conditions of their families. We also examined the contribution of the work of their wives, as generators of income and as producers of domestic services essential for the social and biological reproduction of the members of the domestic unit, as well as the importance of the network of relations consisting of relatives and neighbors that give several types of aid to the families.

family; migrants; rural workers; sexual division of labor; kinship; neighbor relationships