Social justice as a moral and normative framework for social intervention with migrant citizens¹

Abstract

Theoretical analysis of Fraser's and Honneth's critical perspectives on social justice is made, presenting their relationship with migration as a current social phenomenon; also, the different social problems faced by migrants, which require normative and moral frameworks that promote social recognition through social participation in the spaces of daily life. At the same time, the different types of justice (distributive and recognition) are presented as the theoretical basis for the design of intervention devices to reduce the social gaps that originate from social injustices: discrimination, xenophobia, and racism experienced by migrants in the social contexts of arrival and which are exacerbated by the lack of distribution, political participation, and recognition. It is concluded that it is necessary to incorporate the framework of social justice in social intervention practices from a perspective centered on the subjects and the context in which they carry out their daily lives and occupations.

Keywords:
Social Justice; Migration; Social Intervention; Recognition; Everyday Life; Occupations

Resumen

Se analizan teóricamente las perspectivas críticas de la justicia social de Fraser y Honneth, presentando su relación con la migración siendo fenómeno social actual; también los diferentes problemas sociales que enfrentan los migrantes los cuales requieren marcos normativos y morales, que propicien el reconocimiento social a través de la participación social en los espacios de vida cotidiana. A su vez, se presentan los diferentes tipos de justicia (distributiva y de reconocimiento) siendo la base teórica para el diseño de dispositivos de intervención para disminuir las brechas sociales que se originan a partir de las injusticias sociales: discriminación, xenofobia y racismo que experimentan los migrantes en los contextos sociales de llegada y que se agudizan por la falta de distribución, participación política y reconocimiento. Se concluye que es necesario incorporar el marco de la justicia social en las prácticas de intervención social desde una perspectiva centrada en los sujetos y el contexto en donde desempeñan su vida cotidiana y sus ocupaciones.

Palabras-clave:
Justicia Social; Migración; Intervención Social; Reconocimiento; Cotidianidad; Ocupaciones

Resumo

As perspectivas críticas de justiça social de Fraser e Honneth são aqui analisadas, teoricamente, apresentando a sua relação com a migração como um fenômeno social atual; são também apresentados os diferentes problemas sociais enfrentados pelos migrantes, os quais requerem marcos normativos e morais que promovam o reconhecimento social através da participação social nos espaços da vida cotidiana. Simultaneamente, os diferentes tipos de justiça (distributiva e de reconhecimento) são apresentados como base teórica para a concepção de mecanismos de intervenção destinados a reduzir as brechas sociais que se originam das injustiças sociais: discriminação, xenofobia e racismo experimentados pelos migrantes nos contextos sociais de chegada e que são exacerbados pela falta de distribuição, participação política e reconhecimento. Conclui-se que é necessário incorporar o quadro da justiça social nas práticas de intervenção social numa perspectiva centrada nos temas e no contexto em que levam a cabo a sua vida cotidiana e as suas ocupações.

Palavras-chave:
Justiça Social; Migração; Intervenção Social; Reconhecimento; Vida Cotidiana; Atividades

Introduction

Migration, as a current social phenomenon, becomes important due to the growth of the population and global migratory flows (Organización de Naciones Unidas, 2021; Organización Internacional para las Migraciones, 2019, 2020), the result of humanitarian crises from sociopolitical inequalities and economic conditions experienced within many countries, especially in Latin America, with a tendency towards internal migration and with purely labor characteristics (Comisión Económica para América Latina, 2017; Organización Internacional del Trabajo, 2017). As a result of these new dynamics, social processes are configured in the daily forms of participation and interaction of migrants and the society in which they arrive. Therefore, the social composition and the forms of relationship between social actors present variable and not so positive dynamics for migrants (Contreras, 2019b; Sassen, 2016, 2020) altering the forms of relationship and action in daily life.

Thus, from various areas, an attempt is made to explain the migratory phenomenon with its causes, history, the profile of migrants, consequences, and the current state of the countries that receive migrants, generating spaces for reflection and criticism of the migratory reality that is experienced. It is important to highlight that the different social problems faced by migrants require normative and moral frameworks, as well as different intervention mechanisms, especially those related to their activities (Sassen, 2020). The different types of justice turn out to be useful social, moral, and normative frameworks in the construction of social intervention devices, whose objective is to reduce the social gaps that originate from social injustices: discrimination, xenophobia, and racism experienced by migrants in the social contexts of arrival and that is exacerbated by the lack of distribution, political participation, and recognition.

Making a relationship of migration from a justice perspective achieves that social and intervention devices are generated where the subjects are recognized as social actors, achieving the application of social justice in spaces of social exchange. Talking about those who arrive with a category of “migrant” activates a social, political, and cultural denomination that entails exclusive treatment in social relations and different social spheres (work, health, education, housing, etc.). Consequently, migration and the migrant, within the scale of social assessment, are perceived and classified as poor, dangerous, and threatening in neoliberal societies, products of the historical result in relationships and interactions with the other (Tijoux, 2016). These characteristics are a reason for conflict where there is no moral or social value, which is why struggles for mutual recognition are necessary to achieve social justice (Honneth, 1997) and practices of social intervention in the context and practices where everyday life is developed.

This paper then arises from the need to articulate and reflect on social justice as a theoretical and action basis for the design of social interventions, from a base of ethical, philosophical, and moral thought. Migration, as a current social phenomenon, deserves to be considered within the needs of action in social intervention processes, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, where these frameworks of analysis can be incorporated that allow the understanding of relationships and interaction between migrants and social systems, where they carry out their daily lives. The latter implies professional work, incorporating social justice and linking it with the various forms of social intervention at the macro social level (State and institutions) as well as micro-social (daily and community life), and the scope that professionals have in human occupation, which analyzes changes in daily life and their occupations, as well as the social configuration of migrant individuals, allowing to propose and mobilize interdisciplinary and relevant dialogue in the field of social justice and migration.

Gender, Migration, and Exclusion

Social recognition for women is a relevant issue since women traditionally make up a socially and patriarchally excluded group. Meanwhile, they need to be recognized as individuals of rights. In this sense, it is important to anchor social justice from a gender perspective, which involves social, economic, and political analysis due to the difference in the social structure that is marked between men and women. In the same way as the social division of labor, where women receive differentiated treatment in daily and work environments or the social difference between productive men, predominantly men, and housewives, predominantly women (Butler & Fraser, 2017).

Justice, within the framework of recognition, redistribution, and political participation of people, attends to social injustices that are the product of system relations and daily life, emphasizing the intersections of class, race, gender, or sexual preference (Laverde, 2016; Caro, 2020). In the intersectionality of being migrant women, the places of origin and the color of their skin, among other characteristics, make them more exposed and vulnerable. Despite having similarities with the male migratory pattern, the particularities toward women and the violation of their rights make the difference in the migratory pattern (Camacho, 2013; Mora, 2008; Lube et al., 2018).

Migration brings differential treatment for migrants. However, regarding the female migration, there is an emphasis on discrimination, xenophobia, racism, mistreatment, sexual and/or physical violence, exacerbation of stereotypes, and hypersexualization of the female body (Contreras, 2019a; Gissi-Barbieri & Ghio-Suárez, 2017; Pérez et al., 2008). The maintenance of stereotypes restricts their multiple daily activities and routines (occupations), associated with limited forms of production and economic remuneration (Corporación Humanas, 2011), which becomes forms of contempt and lack of social recognition.

More and more women emigrate independently to work, receive education, or also as heads of households (Landry, 2012). Despite this reality, migrant women may continue to suffer greater discrimination, are more vulnerable to ill-treatment, and experience double discrimination in the country of destination, compared to migrant men, because they are women and migrants (Organización Internacional para las Migraciones, 2014; Willers, 2016).

Therefore, analyzed from a gender perspective, migration allows us to understand its conditions in everyday spaces, both in the family relationships that are lost or left in the countries of origin and also with the reconstruction or formation of new families in the places of arrival (Gonzálvez Torralbo, 2010; Tapia, 2011; Lube et al., 2018). At the State level, it is necessary to make visible and explore the conditions of labor, educational, sexual, and reproductive rights, the coverage of services, as well as the relationships of solidarity-sorority resulting from social interaction, considering the deployment in the protection or violation of women's rights, and manifestations at the social level that occur in relationships, such as exclusion, marginalization, racism, xenophobia, etc. (Mora, 2008; Gonzálvez Torralbo, 2010; Tijoux, 2016; Rojas & Silva, 2016).

Despite the different international human rights treaties and mechanisms, women are the most exposed group due to an unequal relationship within a patriarchal system where women are always exposed to inferior conditions than those of men, which become more acute in migrant women and with greater emphasis the distinction of race and place of origin is made (Bourdieu, 1999). When talking about social justice and migration, it is necessary to relate it to gender, being an important category in the social recognition of migrant women, especially in global social and migratory processes that are seen in everyday life. Consequently, thinking about migration from a gender perspective allows us to think about forms of social intervention for differentiated individuals who deserve recognition, in this case, migrant women (Sassen, 2016; Franklin, 2015).

Scopes of Social Justice - Honneth and Fraser: Redistribution, Participation, and Recognition

When considering migration as a current social phenomenon, we understand that it brings with it multiple characteristics, such as the loss or modification of the status of citizen and the absence of guarantees of rights, associated with social justice and not fulfillment of redistribution processes, participation, recognition and the exercise of their political role in the social context (Fraser, 2009). All of this is necessary for dialogue and the construction of culturally diverse societies in a globalized world with a latent migration phenomenon. Therefore, it is necessary to rethink social justice and forms of intervention based on normative, moral, and fair frameworks that allow the recognition of individuals within everyday social spaces (Morales, 2017).

Rawls (2003) cites social justice as the equality of rights and their protection by social institutions, as well as the fulfillment of morally established duties in society and the adequate distribution of resources and co-responsibilities of social cooperation. In this approach, Murillo & Hernández, (2011) detail that social justice is based on the conviction that all human beings have the right to equal treatment, support to achieve their human rights, and fair distribution of social resources. “Justice is one of the main virtues associated with the establishment of a fair social order, in which distributive and allocative procedures were presented” (Ruz Escobar, 2020, p. 98). Justice is then a moral, ethical, social, and above all human construction, with different types of meanings, which allows views and approaches from different perspectives (Rawls, 2003; Hoyos, 2008).

From its origins, social justice has been associated with an economic and political tradition. However, in recent decades, it has a relationship not only with the distribution of goods and material resources but with the individual and his very notion of individual and the social construction with other individuals from a modern philosophy (Honneth, 1997). Then, the incorporation of categories associated with social participation, political role, equality of conditions, distribution and redistribution, and recognition will arrive, being synonyms of what will be understood by justice-social justice (Fraser, 2000, 2008). It will not be enough for each one to receive what is fair or equitable, it requires a social and moral regulation anchored to the social processes where the daily actions of the individuals (everyday activities) are found. Therefore, social justice deals with the whole society, considering the person, the family, the community, the norms, and institutions; he is concerned with social order as a system, coexistence, and cooperation (Lobatón, 2018).

Due to the above, the frameworks of social justice, especially from the social philosophy of Fraser and Honneth, are conceptual devices that allow us to analyze and understand the forms of social justice for current societies and understand social and intervention processes for individuals who have traditionally been excluded. Although they are different perspectives from philosophy and sociology, they are the starting point to make a relationship and interpretation of the struggles for recognition for the scope of social justice of minority groups in daily actions, in this case, migrant individuals. Asking about social justice from multiple dimensions will achieve a social agreement for the real scope of justice, bringing the satisfaction of the requirements of justice for all.

It is important to make a theoretical relationship between the postulates of Honneth (1997, 2006, 2010, 2011) Honneth & Fraser (2006) and Fraser (2000, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2017) from sociology and contemporary political philosophy in their ethical-philosophical approaches. All this, in direct connection with the scope of migratory matters and the social recognition of the individuals, is a normative and moral framework in the understanding of social justice.

Fraser's Proposal

Fraser's position (Fraser, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2009; Honneth & Fraser, 2006) about the scales of justice is articulated in the phenomenon of migration in the three dimensions for understanding social justice. His statements are based on the obstacles to social and political justice, trying to advance in dilemmas that arise in social practice with the most disadvantaged individuals (Iglesias, 2012; Postigo, 2012). Fraser argues that to build modern social forms, the framework of social justice will be necessary for the reestablishment of modern society; social elements without social institutions become unequal societies that reproduce social injustices (Fraser & Rahel, 2019).

From the theory presented by Fraser (2004, 2008), three dimensions related to fair access to social guarantees and achieving minimum social justice stand out. These dimensions are distributive justice, recognition justice, and, finally, political justice (Honneth & Fraser, 2006). These contributions establish the recognition and value of who the other is, a fair distribution of resources for their action, and a political category of political actions; each one necessary when talking about equity in citizen participation, where the person who migrates is no longer a stranger, but a citizen who is guaranteed adequate inclusion in the social environment for equitable participation in everyday spaces: the intimacy of the family and friends and close ones, the relationships and guarantee of rights by the State and in the daily interaction where life in common is woven.

The categories of justice of Fraser (2000, 2009, 2017) are necessary for social analysis and their relationship with the migratory phenomenon. It allows us to reflect on the importance that it takes on migrant groups and the ways of intervening in them. These contribute to the social movements of traditionally excluded groups; in this case, migrants. Additionally, the gender perspective that Fraser accompanies in her writings makes it convenient to establish a relationship with migrant women in the social struggle for justice.

Distributive justice allows for economic restructuring in the access and guarantees of goods and resources for equitable access in society. The central axis of this re-distribution is a critique of capitalism and the over-exploitation of workers, therefore, of the social classification of work and occupations, where the working classes and memorized social groups lack access to goods and resources, especially women who are excluded under a patriarchal system who have been excluded and confined to moral regulations and social roles, destined to care, family and household chores (Butler & Fraser, 2017). For example, the injustices that are committed in some cases where the migrant citizen lacks guaranteed fair employment contracts, decent housing, and adequate health services. Even so, the category of migrants also turns out to be a category of status that fosters the lack of distribution and guarantees necessary to live with equality.

Political participation as part of justice considers that “[...] the political sets the stage in which the struggles for distribution and recognition take place [...]” (Fraser, 2004, p. 37). From there, some criteria account for social relevance; that is, being considered or not as part of a community. At the same time, it allows establishing who is included and excluded from the rights of recognition and distribution from justice (Fraser, 2004). For example, the development of public policies on migration where the immigrant is considered a stranger or foreigner in a territory, and not in a sense of equality that is guaranteed recognition and distribution, resulting in inequality compared to others.

Finally, recognition as justice. Fraser (2008) highlights that, in the case of migrants, the justice of recognition is related to citizenship and requires that it be presented in an equal manner, guaranteeing the right to build a social fabric. “Justice requires reaching social agreements that allow all members of society to recognize the other on equal terms in social life” (Fraser, 2004, p. 35). Therefore, to advance in overcoming processes of injustice, it is necessary to eliminate those obstacles at the institutional level that generate conditions of inequality among the people that make up a society and do not allow the justice of recognition to be achieved in social interactions (Fraser, 2004).

Fraser's contributions are important from a gender perspective since they allow an analysis of recognition, participation, and redistribution, necessary characteristics for the social justice of migrants, especially for those who have been socially and historically excluded, such as the case of women. Consequently, social intervention requires allowing access, participation, redistribution, and recognition within social institutions, and their respective management. From this perspective, for the real scope of justice, a society must be built where intervention spaces are developed through the linking and participation of the individuals in their social and institutional spaces where life is made, making them participate in occupations worthy and recognized, breaking schemes of today's society where only a few have access to these privileges.

Honneth's Proposal

“Recognition” has its conceptual origins in Hegelian philosophy. Its ideal was equal treatment in access to the social system to which they belonged, without distinction of conditions specific to each individual; the continuation of this legacy is consolidated with the works of Honneth's political and philosophical thought (Lobatón, 2018). Honneth (1997, p. 27-28) mentions the recognition based on what Hegel said about intersubjective relations, pointing out that the “[...] ethical relations of a society present the forms of a practical intersubjectivity, in which the complementary agreement and, with it, the necessary community of the individuals that oppose each other, is secured by recognition”.

Honneth pursues the idea of elevating the individual as a social actor, with the guarantees of full participation in social institutions (family and friends, institutions of the State and society, institutions where daily actions and daily activities take place). As a result, “[...] he designates an ideal reciprocal relationship between the subjects, in which each one sees the other equally and also separately from himself [...]” (Fraser & Honneth, 2006, p. 20). Therefore, it is the fact of recognizing the other in symmetry of conditions and equality, considering the subjectivities of each individual; act absent in the relationship with migrants to the extent that xenophobic, racist, exclusionary practices arise and non-recognition in their role as citizens, always giving them the immigrant or foreign category.

The absence of recognition generates forms of contempt and non-recognition that shelter systematic practices of racism and xenophobia; and in the current case of the migratory phenomenon, aporophobic practices (Cortina, 2017). This panorama worsens when the migrant is not recognized like any other citizen (Samacá, 2020); considering that recognition “[...] must be understood above all as the affirmation of the positive qualities of individuals or groups, without excluding for this reason that a systematic link with other meanings can be established” (Honneth, 2006, p. 134).

Honneth's theory of recognition Honneth (1997, 2006, 2010) and Honneth & Fraser (2006) tries to establish social justice in modern societies, establishing various forms of recognition and social value through the love given by the family, the right given by guarantees of the State, and solidarity in relation and interaction of social individuals; devices that represent the fundamental basis for the achievement of social justice (Honneth, 2006).

The sphere of love represents primary relationships, attachment, self-identification, and construction of self-esteem; being the family and friends the social institution that represents it. The sphere of law is related to social guarantees, participation, and legal social norms that are established. The State is the institution that represents them and who must guarantee compliance with the recognition of the individuals and the Solidarity Sphere represents the set of actions referring to the social value and respect that occurs in the iteration, valuation which is represented in the contexts and social relationships where the individuals are inserted (Honneth, 1997; Samacá, 2020). These interconnected and interrelated spheres are the claims for the groups that are traditionally violated and build the reaffirmation of individual and collective identity.

Honneth proposes forms of non-recognition and less price for each of the spheres, these forms are moral and social damages that are caused in the lives of the people by not receiving social value and recognition (Honneth, 1997), In the sphere of love, violence or rape cause damage to the self-confidence of the people (Honneth, 1997, 2006). In the specific case of migration, many of these actions fall especially on women, who suffer in most cases of domestic violence, or different types of violence by their circle of closest friends (Samacá, 2020), in the sphere of law, the dispossession or not of recognition of rights (deny or remove) is evidenced, damaging self-respect, (Honneth, 1997, 2006), in migration situations, the lack of protection by the State is evident in terms of the regularization of migratory status, legal absence of support and lack of inclusive migrant laws. For example the violation of labor contracts for migrants, especially in women who within a patriarchal society are below men (Samacá, 2020). Finally, in the sphere of solidarity, the dishonor that damages self-esteem (Honneth, 1997, 2006), materializes in social prejudices, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia that occur in daily relationships, in the migrant case, women are exposed to the hypersexualization of their bodies, stigmatization and insults, the intersectionality of being Migrant women and, in some cases, Afro-descendants, are exposed to a greater risk of non-recognition (Samacá, 2019).

Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation Keys for Social Intervention

From this perspective, the very essence of justice considers that the proposed social dimensions, both redistribution, and recognition, are articulated in social plans of participation in everyday spaces, so Fraser and Honneth's position is positioned at the same level. Otherwise, it falls into the development of interdependent injustices.

This is how the political character of justice allows the articulation and practices in the spaces of common socialization that materialize in the devices of social intervention. “The relationship between the so-called globalization and everyday life brings a series of consequences of problems that become questions for intervention” (Carballeda, 2002, p. 53).

Social intervention “[...] is configured today as a central pillar to be able to understand our culture. It crosses different areas of our lives and affects all sectors of society [...]” (Gonzáles, 2012, p. 6), the same author mentions that social intervention needs to be analyzed not only from the sectors in which they intervene, or resources used or the type of methodology used in the intervention. It should be an analysis that articulates different dimensions and at the base, it is given for and by the individuals (Gonzáles, 2012).

Therefore, from the design of social interventions, it requires professionals who can manage, distribute and access resources in terms of economic, political, and social capital, to advance in the social agreements that finally allow the interaction of the human beings members of a society where it is recognized who the individual is, but also how he can achieve adequate redistribution, recognition, and participation. Honneth (2006) considers that one of the forms of disrespect or “undervaluing” of people is related to the spaces of daily social participation. If an individual does not participate in it, he is directly and structurally excluded from the spaces of social participation.

Social justice together with the processes of social intervention allows mobilizing social systems and scheduling new possibilities, making visible the problems of the social structure (Sáenz, 2007). The foregoing may be the path of resistance from the institutional state and struggles for recognition that tend to include the reconstruction of networks and social ties at the microsocial level of traditionally excluded people. Therefore, social intervention begins with the interaction between individuals, becoming the main element that contributes to interventions based on social and moral frameworks such as social justice (Gonzáles, 2012).

Intervention processes are processes that are maintained and are progressive over time. They generate tensions and conflicts, which interfere with how needs are determined in the incorporation or not in the public agenda, and the specific ways of attention to the social needs of vulnerable groups (Aquin, 2013). The result of the processes of social intervention under the platform of justice is that it encourages the creation and discussion of new social policies, once again it is emphasized that they are based on social justice, distribution, recognition, and participation. and taking into account a gender approach since these are “[...] expression and result of those struggles within the field of social intervention, and constitute a particular form of social links between institutions that facilitate or restrict access to goods and services necessary for ensuring social reproduction” (Aquin, 2013, p. 68).

Thus, “[...] theories of justice must become three-dimensional and incorporate the political dimension of representation together with the economic dimension of distribution and the cultural dimension of recognition” (Fraser, 2004, p. 45).

The interface in which redistribution and recognition can materialize due to the political character that it possesses for the design of social interventions is then intercultural citizenship. Tubino (2005) mentions that intercultural citizenship must be considered as one that lays the foundations of democracy in the context of the inclusion of diversities and is based on a social pact. Likewise, he argues that interculturality is not possible if an intercultural dialogue does not previously exist (Tubino, 2005), in which an authentic national unity is possible. So, the migratory phenomenon not only gives rise to new tensions, given the asymmetries between mobility but also calls into question the arguments that the Nation-States have defended up to now. It is pertinent to say that the phenomenon of migration is a fundamental factor for today to consider a resignification of culture, politics, law, citizenship, and plurality (Franco, 2015). In short, intercultural citizenship manages to have a relevant weight in social dynamics, managing to permeate society from the processes of social intervention and scope in the public and political spheres.

Therefore, intercultural citizenship implies incorporating the individuals in the political sphere of recognition, the creation of dialogue spaces, and a process of distribution, recognition, and participation (Kymlicka, 1996, 2006). Interculturality is “[...] an ethical-political offer of inclusive democracy of alternative diversity to the western character of social modernization [...]” (Tubino, 2005, p. 56). Interculturality should be thought of less as a noun and more as a verb of action, a task for the whole society and not only for indigenous and Afro-descendant sectors (Walsh, 2009).

Final Considerations

The theory of social justice is a lens for the analysis and understanding of current social problems and phenomena related to daily life, which allows us to examine the relationship for the fulfillment of social justice through the forms of recognition in conjunction with the citizen processes, guaranteeing compliance with the human rights of those who decide to migrate, achieving intercultural citizenship in various contexts. In this way, the epistemological scope of the social sciences, from the theory and philosophy of Honneth and its relationship with current problems, allows the linking of theory and practice. It also generates contributions as a theoretical basis that rethinks social intervention and the struggles for the recognition of all individuals in social spheres, promoting interventions, especially for migration in unequal contexts, being recognizable, participatory, and located in the contexts of arrival (Morales, 2017; Muñoz, 2011).

Thinking about the intervention process from social justice allows the design and execution of strategies that contemplate processes in everyday contexts and situations (micro-social relationships). Rethink and aspire to the various factions in the macrosocial intervention (State institutions, public policies, territorial development plans, intervention devices, etc.), where migrants are recognized as subjects of rights (especially women), inhabitants of the territory, and new citizens. The foregoing provides inputs for the generation of knowledge at a territorial and epistemic level about the intervention in terms of understanding a social phenomenon and its relationship with activities and daily life (occupation-es); since “[...] it requires important cultural changes in micro-social spaces: institutional arrangements that enable dialogue, wills for it and skills in the translation of languages based on understanding” (Muñoz, 2011, p. 99).

The processes of social intervention together with normative frameworks based on social justice show that the social institutions that conduct social policies are not immovable, nor neutral, (Aquin, 2013) are areas in which the professional action of experts in human occupation. Therefore, it deserves a space for participation and dialogue that generates processes of social justice and citizenship for all subjects without distinction.

The theoretical contribution from other disciplines of the social sciences, including sociology or political philosophy, allows occupational therapists to understand and design processes of social intervention and struggles for the recognition of all subjects in social spheres, seeking justice social and promoting interventions, especially for Latin American migration due to the contexts of inequality that are currently experienced.

The reflection on the social justice of the subjects (migrants and non-migrants) allows professionals in human occupation to intervene in the social structures that lead to the exclusion of subjects due to lack of recognition at the structural and historical level, and the social level in everyday situations. It is important that social intervention has certain characteristics: recognizable and democratic, located in social contexts, and thought of the particularities of the subjects without distinctions of class, gender, race, sexual identity, etc. (Honneth, 2006; Morales, 2017).

Asking about social justice from multiple dimensions will achieve social agreements for the real scope of justice, bringing the satisfaction of the requirements of justice for all, fulfilling the very essence of occupational therapy for the equalization of opportunities, just actions, and everyday life.

All of this is essential to advance towards the economic democratization, recognition, and politics of society; and, obviously, towards the recognition of distribution and participation. Social justice, citizenship, and participation operate with different logics, but are closely linked, conditioning and enabling one with the other. They are useful in social intervention processes for socially excluded subjects and for equalizing participation in individual and collective daily activities.

Then, social justice as a framework for intervention allows us to rise to the discussion regarding the social order, so that designing actions within the social system and institutions enables a distribution, recognition, and participation of the subjects in all spheres of everyday life and its activities, especially those who are systematically excluded, such as women, migrants, children, etc.

Social justice also leads the discipline to complicate and theorize from social analysis and the transformation of what interventions conceived under political, ethical, and philosophical perspectives of social justice imply. Thus, it deserves to be understood in the sense that occupational therapy allows. thinking about the limitations and possibility for the full development of the daily life of the subjects, for which it will be important “[...] the diversity of social life is considered, granting recognition and promotion to the values that enhance the knowledge, the doings, the lives everyday life and human activities [...]” (Fenoy-Garriga et al., 2021, p. 5).

There is an urgent call not to operationalize social injustices as a simple reductive act of terms such as “occupational justice/injustice”; unequal occupational forms, forms of non-recognition, precarious distribution and elimination of participation and freedom of workers must be made more complex and theorized subjects around daily activities and also towards the analysis of social systems and institutions (Guajardo, 2020). Thus, it will not be enough to say that a subject enjoys or does not enjoy occupational opportunities. This is the result of a discourse that satisfies a system of production. If this is not preceded by the analysis of the very essence of justice, a speech without changes or action would be reproduced, so that the interventions would lack real impact and change, continuing the oppression of the subjects of the social system, those who have been systematically precarious throughout history, with patriarchal characteristics (male, heterosexual, white or, with employment), of inequality and exclusion (Goetz & Molyneux, 2008), especially for certain types of subjects, in this case, migrants and migrant women.

Finally, intercultural citizenship is a proposal for emancipatory transformation that, together with the recognition of the subject and the value of rights, will allow the cultural freedom of human beings. Therefore, an intercultural transit in a diversely multicultural society and citizenships. In this case, immigrants who are subjects of rights pay essential characteristics regardless of their nationality or the place where they arrive or decide to go since they are inalienable, universal, and interdependent (Samacá & Ortiz, 2020) Thus, social justice is the central element of social intervention. Finally, I must consider that any group that has been systematically excluded in society requires an intervention from a social justice perspective. This is the fundamental basis of a discipline that analyzes and intervenes in daily social processes, collective actions, and ways of coexisting, feeling, and thinking, called occupation(s).

• 1
  This article takes up the partial theoretical foundation of the doctoral thesis “Experiences of freedom, of recognition and redistribution of Latin immigrant women” of the Doctorate program in Citizenship and Human Rights, of the University of Barcelona.
• How to cite: Samacá Pulido, J. (2022). Social justice as a moral and normative framework for social intervention with migrant citizens. Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional, 30(spe), e3066. https://doi.org/10.1590/2526-8910.ctoAR232230662

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Edited by

Section editor

Prof. Dr. Daniela Castro de Jong

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  08 June 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  26 June 2021
• Accepted
  27 Feb 2022