In this paper I propose to address the treatment of international migration by the State. In order to do so, I analyze public policies which do not focus on the subject but which impact strongly on the foreign population. Thus, I seek to shed light on logics which may obviate and/or contradict the ones established in migration laws. Such logics become evident when research is conducted from the social and symbolic margins of the State, working with a broad conceptualization of public policies. I exemplify the contributions made by this perspective with the analysis of four policies implemented by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 2004 and 2014 in the Parque Indoamericano Villa Soldati, area with one of the highest percentages of migrant population residing in this city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The opposition between the categories of shantytown and neighborhood has been crucial in the disciplinary analyses of popular habitat in Argentina. The urbanization of a shantytown in Great Buenos Aires enables us to refresh this discussion, setting the categories into motion. The ethnographic analysis of the category of neighborhood in the urbanization of Villa Torres (La Matanza) will help to explore how this shantytown is constructed as “emblem" for public policies, receiving various resources. In fact, this paper will analyze how the urbanization is legitimized through an image of the neighborhood, of the urbanization and of the people in charge of it as “gente del barrio" [people from the neighborhood] in order to show how local knowledge is implied in this public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]