Global Networks © 2018 Global Networks Partnership & John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 Gender, autonomy and return migration: negotiating street harassment in Lima, Peru M. CRISTINA ALCALDE Gender and Women’s Studies Department, University of Kentucky, 212 Breckinridge Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0056, USA cristina.alcalde@uky.edu Abstract In this article, I approach street harassment broadly as a phenomenon to which women relate globally and as one that affects multiple aspects of their lives, or more specifically their experiences of return migration to Lima, Peru. I propose that street sexual harassment contributes to a restricted sense of autonomy among women return migrants in Lima. I emphasize that, given its pervasiveness, a consideration of street sexual harassment in relation to return migration contributes to a richer, gender- conscious understanding of women’s everyday experiences as return migrants. In examining a little studied yet significant form of everyday violence against women in the context of return migration, this article contributes to the growing literature on the intersections of gender, autonomy, and migration. More specifically, I draw on the experiences of middle- and upper-class Peruvians to examine these intersections. Keywords AUTONOMY, EVERYDAY VIOLENCE, GENDER, LIMA, #METOO MOVEMENT, RETURN MIGRATION, STREET SEXUAL HARASSMENT Walking through the streets of Lima, a woman may walk faster and more purposefully if a man nearby says ‘Te ves bien rica’ [You look very tasty], ‘Ven, muñeca’ [Come here, doll] or ‘Mamacita, que rica estas’ [Little mama, you’re so tasty]. As the #MeToo movement has shown, women’s experiences of harassment are the norm rather than the exception globally. 1 Street harassment affects women’s lives throughout the world, although the forms it takes are context specific. Women migrants returning to Lima at least partly understand and experience the contrast between life abroad and life at home in the capital through the differing context-specific threats and realities of street harass- ment in everyday life. Street harassment and migration are rarely discussed together, yet they may intersect in women’s lives and have a significant impact on their experien- ces of safety and autonomy. Approximately 80 per cent of the Peruvians I surveyed who were living outside Peru reported that they felt safer abroad than at home. Many Peruvian migrants thus experienced returning to Peru as coming back to greater insecurity and danger. A recent poll (Thomson Reuters 2017) ranked Lima among the world’s ten worst megacities in terms of sexual harassment and violence.