Introduction

The migratory phenomenon has existed throughout history, impacting geopolitics, economy, and culture. Migration has contributed to countries, companies, and communities by generating economic benefits through jobs in both highly skilled and lesser-skilled sectors. In addition, it has paid for innovation and skill accumulation in science, technology, and humanities. On the other hand, it helps increase the workforce in spaces with a shortage of workers, in addition to filling in service and assistance jobs. Migration has also made intercultural diversity possible, through the interaction between norms, beliefs, practices, and other cultural expressions. “International migration is a complex phenomenon related to multiple economic, social, and security aspects that affect daily life in an increasingly interrelated world” (International Organization for Migration, 2018, p. 1).

It is estimated that by 2050 the world total of international migrants will be 405 million, however, migration is an unstable process, fluctuating depending on various factors. In 2015 there were approximately 244 million international migrants worldwide, of whom 75 million were hosted in Europe; more than 5.5 million foreign-born inhabitants lived in Spain (^{IOM, 2018}).

After the United States, Spain is the main destination for South American migrants, hosting approximately 1.8 million inhabitants from South America (^{IOM, 2018}). In 2018, Spain received 19 280 asylum applications from people of Venezuelan origin in the first place, followed by Colombia, Honduras, and El Salvador (^{Spanish Refugee Assistance Commission [Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado], 2019}).

Refugees and displaced individuals are forced to emigrate due to conflict and persecution in their countries of origin. Upon arrival in Spain, they can apply for international protection through a government process that allows them to stay in the country and access resources (^{United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2019}). The Spanish Red Cross, through the Reception and Integration Program for Applicants and Beneficiaries of International Protection (Programa de Acogida e Integración para Solicitantes y Beneficiarios de Protección Internacional), assists asylum seekers from Latin American countries with high migration rates, such as Venezuela and Colombia (^{Ministry of Labor, Migration and Social Security [Ministerio de Trabajo, Migraciones y Seguridad Social], 2018}). Institutions such as the Red Cross acknowledge the importance of the psychological and social dimensions of health, which is why the Reception and Integration Program for Applicants and Beneficiaries of International Protection is focused on the migrant individual and their family group, so that they can access resources that allow them to adapt to life in the receiving country. Its first stage consists of facilitating access to health services, the regularization of their administrative situation, and the coverage of basic needs such as housing, in a temporary shelter. In a later stage, families receive monthly financial support, and the possibility of obtaining jobs and thus becoming independent in rental homes (^{Spanish Red Cross, 2019b}).

Gradually, migration has gained more elements of analysis. It has been analyzed from demographic, geopolitical, economic, and health perspectives. However, it is an increasingly diverse and complex phenomenon that requires considering other intersections (^{IOM, 2010}, ²⁰¹⁸; ^{Rechel et al., 2013}).

The most solid and representative social bonds within migrant populations are family, friends, and people from the same country of origin, in that hierarchical order. These links are particularly useful for mobility and the adaptive process. Therefore, the migrant experience is shaped by the social axis in general and the family one in particular (^{Flahaux et al., 2019}; ^{Herman, 2006}). Some research has focused on the reconfiguration of transnational families and couples affected by migration, however, fundamental areas such as the affective and sexual dimensions remain unexplored (^{Birman & Bray, 2017}; Flahaux et al., 2019; ^{Martínez, 2018}). In these emerging perspectives on the emotional experience, the changes and permanence of family groups and couples, the qualitative methodology has been made use of to explore the discourses on the experiences, opinions, practices, rituals, emotions, and other elements of their daily lives. The family group and the couple are reconstructed from the ideals of family and marriage. Among migrant families, being groups lacking territory and other material goods, their union is perpetuated from these collectively constructed ideals. Faced with the transformation of roles, rituals, and affective and sexual expressions, identities find themselves in constant evolution (^{Gil & Pedone, 2014}; ^{Parella, 2012}).

The gender perspective has been crucial to study the modifications and adaptations of roles, the sexual division of labor, and the bonds and daily practices of migrants through their interaction (^{Muñiz, 2014}; ^{Tapia, 2010}; Téllez, 2001). This includes the intersection of elements defining and materializing the cultural norms to which individuals subscribe in their socialization processes. Migrations and demographic changes reconfigure the family, relationships, and the discursive forms of sexuality, which in turn result in transformations at a social and individual level (^{Philo, 2005}; ^{Zamudio, 2003}).

Eroticism and affectivity are aspects that partake of the complex framework that is human sexuality and experience. The erotic experience is part of the affective bond, so both concepts are inherent. This link between the erotic and the affective implies the search for well-being, that is to say, its underlying objective is the satisfaction of needs (^{Gómez-Zapiain, 2009}). From Ricouer’s perspective, sexuality encompasses eroticism and the affective. The first element has to do with instinct, need, and lack, while the affective or emotional dimension encompasses the interhuman, the bond that makes passions humane (^{Basombrío, 2000}).

The erotic experience is a complex set of sexual behaviors, feelings, and emotions triggered by the mental representations emerging throughout life, that is, the socio-affective history of an individual; the sociocultural context also impacts this set of behaviors (^{Gómez-Zapiain, 2009}). Affectivity is understood as the susceptibility of an individual before certain alterations that take place in the real world or his own self. It is expressed as subjective sensations in certain contexts and is based on physiological triggers, emotional states, and feelings, also helping to guide behavior toward certain purposes (Gómez-Zapiain, 2013; ^{Le Breton, 2013}).

Migration emerges as one of the components permeating the erotic-affective bond. Eroticism in a disciplined society is ordered by the temporal and spatial dimensions, which determine the encounters, embodies performativity, and shapes the bodies, their proximity or distance, as well as their positions and uses (^{Philo, 2005}). This perspective fits into the migratory experience since the temporal and spatial aspects simultaneously shape the ways of living and representing reality (^{Montero, 2013}).

Emotions are “movers of people,” in other words, they are central motivators for decision- making and modulate behavior. Migration, in addition to spatial and geographic mobility, involves changes in the proximity and distance of people (^{Mendoza, Staniscia, & Ortiz, 2016}). That is to say, new forms of subjectivity and daily practices arise, as well as affective and sexual expressions. The elements of the emotional experiences described in this article come together and result in particular modes of connection corresponding to a specific moment and space framed by the migratory experience. Emotions and feelings are the product of a specific sociocultural context and depend on the socio-affective history of the individual, also functioning as an engine that generates behaviors and develops bonds.

This article aims at exploring, describing, and understanding the emergence of erotic-affective bonds among Latin American migrant couples seeking asylum, during their reception and integration process in a migration center of the Spanish Red Cross.

Materials and method

Results

Four main topics and eight subtopics emerged from the analysis of the data, which made it possible to understand the sexual and affective experiences of asylum-seeking couples during their stay at the Almería Red Cross Migration Center (Table 2).

Discussion

Studies on migration from an epidemiological perspective, based on figures, statistics, health interventions, and public policies, are not unusual (^{Rechel et al., 2013}). However, research focused on the emotional experiences of migrants, such as family reconfigurations, has been less studied (^{Caarls & De Valk, 2017}; ^{Flahaux et al., 2019}). Even less frequent are the investigations around sexuality and migration (^{Gil & Pedone, 2014}; ^{Martínez, 2018}; ^{Parella & Cavalcanti, 2010}).

In addition to the economic, social, and cultural repercussions, migration also has effects at the family, individual and couple levels, which will affect depending on the strengths of each person, their decision-making capacity, consistency, adaptation, and their resilience to circumstances (^{Lamarque & Moro, 2020}), as mentioned by some informants. In this regard, institutions such as the Red Cross, acknowledging the multidimensional nature of health, provide psychological care to people to help them develop skills that foster autonomy and the creation or improvement of social relationships, especially through the Reception and Integration Program, designed to keep together and enhance the development of the family group. The workshops of said program have generated reflection processes among informants on gender roles, masculinity, ways of relating to each other, among other issues that frame the interactions of migrant families and couples. Although it is true that a series of daily activities, roles, and particular ways of understanding, representing, and appropriating their experiences have remained, the incorporation of the gender perspective has contributed to relational and identity changes expressed in the new context (Official College of Psychologists of Madrid [^{Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid], 2016}; ^{Spanish Red Cross, 2019a}).

Hermeneutic phenomenology addresses how informants interpret their own experiences, to build an understanding from a fusion of horizons together with the bibliography on the topic. For this, their emotional experiences were delved into, as well as their motivations to undertake the migration journey. As expressed by them, deciding to migrate arose from the need to improve their safety, their health, and their quality of life, however, they have gone through migratory grief by having to abandon their customs, their property, and their loved ones. Similarly, this adaptation process has been accompanied by feelings of concern at not finding a job and uncertainty about the future of their status in the host country. In order to cope with this, they have made use of emotional and social resources, thus developing resilience skills, and realizing that their social relationships are an invaluable resource (^{Lamarque & Moro, 2020}; ^{Sánchez & Robles, 2015}).

^{Parella and Cavalcanti (2010}) point out that physical and geographical distance reconfigures the bond, the emotional dimension, and the forms of communication of couples who emigrate. However, being too close to other family members and having to share spaces such as rooms, make intimate time between couples difficult (^{Martínez, 2018}), as expressed by the informants, who have had to develop strategies to carry out sexual intercourse.

Space is a fundamental element that modifies daily practices and, in this context, conditions erotic-affective encounters (^{Parella & Cavalcanti, 2010}). On the other hand, as ^{Hirsch (2003}) pointed out, the new space in the host country can protect the sexual intimacy of migrants because the sense of surveillance is left behind. Space, in addition to transforming the erotic, impacts the emotions experienced, building and reconfiguring relationships (^{Colanazi, 2018}). However, there is a dual reality in relation to the lack of some family members: in the first case, said lack makes it possible for the couple to be left alone and strengthen the erotic-affective bond; while in the opposite case, the lack of certain members of the family translates into lack of support for the care of the children, which makes sexual intercourse impossible.

To nurture the erotic dimension within the migratory framework, couples carry out body grooming rituals for seduction, develop strategies to carry out the sexual encounter, explore and incorporate sexual fantasies, share daily responsibilities within the family space, and seek time of leisure as a couple (^{Colanazi, 2018}; ^{Sanz, 2013}).

The affective and erotic dimensions are interrelated and codependent. While the former is transformed by the interaction between individuals, the space, and other subjective elements, the erotic dimension also undergoes changes. Through migration policies, what is permitted and what is prohibited derived from them, an ordering of the bodies and their sexual dispositions is produced (^{Lube, Gonzálvez, & Stefoni, 2018}).

Emotions are inseparable from migration, as they are central motivators when making decisions and in behavior. Both the erotic-affective bonds studied hereby and those of friendship with fellow nationals evidence the transformation of intimacy and closeness (^{Mendoza et al., 2016}).

In the present investigation, the contrasts between the emotional experiences of men and women in the face of the migratory experience were analyzed. While the women reported experiencing feelings of calm and relaxation, the men expressed having experienced stress and concern about the lack of a paid job that would make them feel “useful” (^{Méndez, Rojas, & Montero, 2016}; ^{Tapia, 2010}). In addition to this contrast of sensations, positions also emerged from what it is to “be a man” or “to be a woman,” justifying in a certain way their emotional and sexual experiences or needs. These last two dimensions were transfigured from their dialectical relationship. The fact of enunciating themselves as “man” arises spontaneously in men when inquiring about the expression of their emotions in their role within the family group. From a gender perspective, the results indicate that men reproduce gender stereotypes because they feel an overloaded responsibility with respect to the family group and the couple by assuming the obligation of being the economic providers, which affects them emotionally, coming to feel stress, angst, and personal and situational dissatisfaction (^{Gil & Pedone, 2014}; ^{Merleau-Ponty, 1975}; ^{Tapia, 2010}).

During the interviews, men seemed to omit data on their living conditions during the period of time in which they did not have a paid job. Specifically, they referred to the times in which they were economically and professionally productive (^{Sørensen & Vammen, 2014}). Especially in the case of the youngest, whose identity was at stake as they were used to exercising their profession. On the other hand, this aspect did not affect older males, since they had adaptive skills developed by having performed in a variety of labor positions throughout their lives (^{Alzoubi, Al-Smadi, & Gougazeh, 2019}; Téllez, 2001).

According to other studies, migrants from the same country of origin show forms of bonding that improve their adaptation to the new country, because they feel they belong to a group with which they share ideologies, culture, and beliefs, which allows them to sustain a collective identity (^{Goldstein, 2002}). Such is the case of several informants who reported having bonded by holding celebrations together and coexisting daily, thus strengthening their families.

Closing remarks

The hermeneutic phenomenology employed allowed us to broaden our understanding from a fusion of horizons. The methodological approach made it possible to dilute asymmetries between the researcher and the person interviewed, in addition to the fact that this process allowed for a more human approach to the analytical concepts, the people interviewed, and their experiences.

Exploring the elements that intervene in the erotic-affective bonding of Latin American migrant couples is complex and involves a multiplicity of interrelated determinants in the migratory process, such as the reasons for which the decision to migrate was made, the emotional support and shared experiences as a couple, daily acts of affection and the use of free time as a couple, among others. That is why the emotional and affective expressions of migrant couples are indispensable resources in adapting to the migratory project. There is no unique way of bonding determined by the migratory experience and said experience does not guarantee a stronger or better bond either. There is a fusion of elements that come together to build the relationship, such as insecurities and pre-existing problems that persist during the development of said relationship.

Although the erotic dimension is transformed by aspects such as the layout of the space, the architecture of the home, and having to share the space with other family members, it remains one of the key elements that articulate the couple’s relationship.

Migrant women appear to be suspended in time, whereas for men the future is more unattainable and uncertain, in the face of a bet or promise of professional development in which, in turn, their identity is at stake. Therefore, strategies must be developed individually and as a couple to adjust to their new context.

Although our informants indeed face a variety of vicissitudes piercing through their experiences, the ways they deal with them hold an individual component, and so it will depend on their mentality and previous experiences that they are able to manage new situations in various ways.

Finally, it should be noted that the human being is a social being that experiences transformations in their roles, rituals, and affective and sexual expressions, in such a way that identities are under constant evolution. Therefore, humans need to create emotional bonds that help them overcome the difficult circumstances that made them emigrate and adapt to a new destination. These relationships are built from experiencing migration together and are strengthened by generating a series of adaptation strategies and skills through the couple relationship project. However, the history of each couple before migration is decisive in their migratory experience and in their forms of bonding.