From "mud houses" to "wasted houses": remittances and housing in rural highland Ecuador

Codesal, Diana Mata

Abstracts

Migration is often aimed to build migrants' own house in their places of origin. In rural highland Ecuador remittances sent from the US are habitually used to build houses which have changed the housing landscape of many villages. This paper describes the housing landscape of a village, Xarbán, and how it has changed over the last fifty years due to migration and remittances. It unpacks the reasons why many of the recently built houses remained empty or inhabited by only one or two people. It particularly explores the impact of migrants' legal status abroad on their housing decisions and behaviour. Finally, the article looks for positive impacts of these so-called "wasted houses" on migrants, their relatives and non-migrant villagers. Remittance houses' do have positive effects which are different for female and male villagers.

remittances; housing; legal status; gender; Ecuador

Muitas vezes, a migração tem como objetivo a construção de uma habitação no lugar de origem. Nas áreas rurais do planalto do Equador as remessas enviadas desde os EUA são comumente utilizadas para construir casas que mudaram a paisagem de muitos povoados. Este artigo descreve a paisagem arquitetônica em um desses povoados, Xarbán, e como ele mudou ao longo dos últimos cinquenta anos, devido à migração e às remessas. Analisam-se as razões pelas quais muitas das casas recém-construídas permanecem vazias ou habitadas por apenas uma ou duas pessoas. De forma específica, se aprofunda o impacto do status jurídico dos migrantes no exterior em suas decisões e comportamentos em relação à moradia no Equador. Finalmente, o artigo analisa os impactos positivos destas chamadas "casas desperdiçadas" sobre os migrantes, suas famílias e, em alguns casos, nos não-migrantes. As "remittance houses" têm efeitos positivos diferentes para mulheres e homens.

remessas; habitação; estatus legal; gênero; Equador

ABBOTS, Emma-Jayne. "It's the Modern Way of Life": Food, Mobility and Time Politics among Newly-Wealthy Campesinos in Highland Ecuador. PhD in Anthropology. London: Goldsmiths College-University of London, 2008.
BORRERO, Ana Luz. La Migración. Estudio sobre las Remesas de Divisas que ingresan en Ecuador. Universitas. Revista de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador, v. 1, n. 1, 2002, p. 79-87.
COLLOREDO-MANSFELD, Rudi. Architectural Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Change in the Andes. American Anthropologist, v. 96, n. 4, 1994, p. 845-865.
CONWAY, Dennis. Transnationalism and return: 'Home' as an enduring fixture and 'Anchor'. In POTTER, Robert; CONWAY, Dennis; PHILLIPS, Joan (eds.). The Experience of Return Migration: Caribbean perspectives. Burlington: Ashgate, 2005, p. 263-287.
DE VILLANOVA, Roselyne; Carolina LEITE; Isabel RAPOSO. Casas de sonhos: Emigrantes construtores no Norte de Portugal. Lisbon: Salamandra Créaphis, 1995.
FLETCHER, Peri L. La casa de mis sueños: Dreams of Home in a Transnational Migrant Community. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999.
GARDNER, Katy Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
GRIGOLINI, Silvia. When houses provide more than shelter: analyzing the uses of remittances within their sociocultural context. In TRAGER, Lillian (ed.). Migration and Economy. Global and Local Dynamics. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2005, p. 193-223.
INEC. Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda Quito: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica de Ecuador, 2001.
JARAMILLO, Diego. Globalización y cultura: del hogar a la casa fetiche en la arquitectura popular azuaya. Universidad Verdad, Journal of the Universidad de Azuay, v. 27, 2002, p. 185-195.
KLAUFUS, Christien. Dwelling as representation: Values of architecture in an Ecuadorian squatter settlement. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, v. 15, n. 4, 2000, p. 341-365.
________. Bad taste in architecture Discussion of the popular in residential architecture in Southern Ecuador. OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility studies, The Netherlands: Delf, 2006a.
________. Globalization in residential architecture in Cuenca, Ecuador: social and cultural diversification of architects and their clients. Environment and Planning D-Society & Space, v. 24, n. 1, 2006b, p. 69-89.
KYLE, David. Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000.
PAULI, Julia. A house of one's own: Gender, migration, and residence in rural Mexico. American Ethnologist, v. 35, n. 1, 2008, p. 171-187.
PRIBILSKY, Jason. La Chulla Vida: Gender, Migration, and the Family in Andean Ecuador and New York City. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.
RHOADES, Robert E. From caves to mainstreet. Return migration and the transformation of a Spanish village. Papers in Anthropology, v. 20, n. 1, 1979, p. 57-74.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
27 June 2014
Date of issue
June 2014

History

Received
14 Oct 2013
Accepted
30 Mar 2014

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[1] ABBOTS, Emma-Jayne. "It's the Modern Way of Life": Food, Mobility and Time Politics among Newly-Wealthy Campesinos in Highland Ecuador. PhD in Anthropology. London: Goldsmiths College-University of London, 2008.

[2] BORRERO, Ana Luz. La Migración. Estudio sobre las Remesas de Divisas que ingresan en Ecuador. Universitas. Revista de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador, v. 1, n. 1, 2002, p. 79-87.

[3] COLLOREDO-MANSFELD, Rudi. Architectural Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Change in the Andes. American Anthropologist, v. 96, n. 4, 1994, p. 845-865.

[4] CONWAY, Dennis. Transnationalism and return: 'Home' as an enduring fixture and 'Anchor'. In POTTER, Robert; CONWAY, Dennis; PHILLIPS, Joan (eds.). The Experience of Return Migration: Caribbean perspectives. Burlington: Ashgate, 2005, p. 263-287.

[5] DE VILLANOVA, Roselyne; Carolina LEITE; Isabel RAPOSO. Casas de sonhos: Emigrantes construtores no Norte de Portugal. Lisbon: Salamandra Créaphis, 1995.

[6] FLETCHER, Peri L. La casa de mis sueños: Dreams of Home in a Transnational Migrant Community. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999.

[7] GARDNER, Katy Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

[8] GRIGOLINI, Silvia. When houses provide more than shelter: analyzing the uses of remittances within their sociocultural context. In TRAGER, Lillian (ed.). Migration and Economy. Global and Local Dynamics. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2005, p. 193-223.

[9] INEC. Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda Quito: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica de Ecuador, 2001.

[10] JARAMILLO, Diego. Globalización y cultura: del hogar a la casa fetiche en la arquitectura popular azuaya. Universidad Verdad, Journal of the Universidad de Azuay, v. 27, 2002, p. 185-195.

[11] KLAUFUS, Christien. Dwelling as representation: Values of architecture in an Ecuadorian squatter settlement. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, v. 15, n. 4, 2000, p. 341-365.

[12] ________. Bad taste in architecture Discussion of the popular in residential architecture in Southern Ecuador. OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility studies, The Netherlands: Delf, 2006a.

[13] ________. Globalization in residential architecture in Cuenca, Ecuador: social and cultural diversification of architects and their clients. Environment and Planning D-Society & Space, v. 24, n. 1, 2006b, p. 69-89.

[14] KYLE, David. Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000.

[15] PAULI, Julia. A house of one's own: Gender, migration, and residence in rural Mexico. American Ethnologist, v. 35, n. 1, 2008, p. 171-187.

[16] PRIBILSKY, Jason. La Chulla Vida: Gender, Migration, and the Family in Andean Ecuador and New York City. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.

[17] RHOADES, Robert E. From caves to mainstreet. Return migration and the transformation of a Spanish village. Papers in Anthropology, v. 20, n. 1, 1979, p. 57-74.

Brasil

Brasil

From "mud houses" to "wasted houses": remittances and housing in rural highland Ecuador

Das "casas de barro" às "casas desperdiçadas": remessas e habitação na área rural montanhosa do Ecuador

Abstracts

Publication Dates

History