Precariedade do trabalho e migração: uma análise a partir da integração de migrantes paraguaios em Mercedes/PR (2020-2026)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the contradictions present in the integration of the migrant population in the municipality of Mercedes (PR), located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, taking labor as the central analytical category. The research is guided by the problem of understanding how the municipality manages migration and cross-border labor relations, and to what extent this management contributes to reproducing or challenging the socioeconomic inequalities characteristic of capitalism in border areas. Methodologically, a qualitative approach is adopted, grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, based on bibliographic review, document analysis, field observation, and semi-structured interviews conducted with migrants, employers, public authorities, and institutional agents. The results show that migration to Mercedes is directly associated with material living conditions, being primarily motivated by the search for employment, better wages, and access to basic public services such as health and education. It is observed that migrants are predominantly inserted into lowskilled sectors, such as construction, agro-industry, clothing manufacturing, and services, characterized by low wages, informality, and job instability. The interviews reveal that, although labor enables permanence in the territory, it occurs under conditions marked by precariousness and subordination, evidencing a form of subordinate integration into the local labor market. At the same time, access to universal public policies contributes to the reproduction of life, albeit in a limited manner and not specifically structured for the migrant population. The analysis also demonstrates that municipal public management operates in a fragmented and reactive way, without the consolidation of specific policies aimed at migrants, reinforcing their condition of institutional invisibility. In this context, cross-border governance appears as a secondary element, marked by structural limitations and low effectiveness in promoting social integration. It is concluded that labor simultaneously constitutes a means of integration and a mechanism for reproducing inequalities, revealing that the migrant presence in Mercedes (PR) is embedded in the structural contradictions of capitalism in border territories, where possibilities for permanence coexist with limits to full social integration