Governmentality and relations of inclusion/exclusion: Social intervention devices aimed at immigrant women in Spain Gubernamentalidad y relaciones de inclusión/ exclusión: Los dispositivos de intervención social dirigidos a mujeres inmigradas en España

Abstract

International migration has emerged, in contemporary European societies, as an area of concern for control and governmentality processes, by means of its definition as a "social problem" that must be addressed by public organisms. Different laws, regulations, discourses, plans and intervention processes emerge from the need to manage these populations, generating as main effect the reproduction and solidification of power relations in host societies. Departing from different researches developed in the field of services provided to immigrant women in Spain, we propose to analise the ways in which governmentality mechanisms contribute to construct a subject that is understood as an "Other problematic and needing" that requires attention to achieve proper social integration. These mechanisms contribute to justify the urge for this population to adapt to a context of legal, social and cultural inequality that results unquestioned.