Immigrants and Body Modifications in the Consumer Society

摘要

This article presents the results of the research project "Identity process, immigration and plastic surgeries". The investigation took place from 2013 to 2014 in Portugal and Spain. The general objective was to search for clues to think more consistently of the interest and the practice of body modifications in the context of immigration. In-depth interviews were carried out with Latin American, Asian and African immigrants. To analyze the interviews, we used the literature about consumer society, social production of body and ethnic plastic surgeries. We propose in this article that immigrants are included in the context of consumer society and the fact that most immigrants live in precarious conditions but this is not an obstacle to think and to practice body modifications makes the issue even more interesting. This does not mean that in the consumer society there are not social and economic inequalities. Instead, we propose that there are new and more subtle forms of domination and of power relations.