The stigma of making a living from garbage: Meta‐sterotypes of trash‐pickers in León (Nicaragua)

The article analyzes various aspects related to the meta‐stereotype of 99 trash pickers who made their living from the garbage dumps in León (Nicaragua). This group is difficult to access, heavily stigmatized, and lives in extreme poverty. All the pickers in the city were interviewed using a heteroapplied structured interview. The results show that people who obtained their livelihood from garbage in the city of León had a mainly negative meta‐stereotype, albeit one to which was some extent indulgent, which could have a negative impact on their processes of social inclusion. The content of the meta‐stereotype had a high degree of uniformity, with few variations between the respondents. However, some differences were observed in the use of some attributes in the meta‐stereotype according to age, cohabitation with a partner and/or with parents, income level, engagement in paid work apart from picking garbage and the respondents' expectations for the future.