Unpacking Coloniality: Gendered Intimacies and Affective Contracts in Migrant Labor

This article addresses a central question: how are colonial hierarchies of race, class, gender, and geography mobilized within intimate, co-ethnic networks to legitimize labor exploitation? Drawing on the case of Peruvian migrants in São Paulo’s artisanal workshops—spaces that double as homes and workplaces—I argue that exploitation is underpinned by a distinctly gendered mechanism: the instrumentalization of affective ties. Combining the lenses of the coloniality of power (Quijano, 2000) and the coloniality of gender (Lugones, 2008), I propose the notion of an unwritten “affective contract” that anchors inequality, particularly for Indigenous women. Based on biographical interviews, the analysis unfolds in four parts: (a) recruitment processes and the dynamics of dependent mobilities; (b) intimacy as a gendered mechanism of labor control; (c) the role of affective contracts in shaping labor relations; and (d) the blurring of family and work boundaries. The article extends coloniality theory by tracing its intimate, gendered micro-mechanisms and contributes to migration studies by showing how kinship and paisano networks reproduce historical inequalities in South–South migration.