Black girls : migrant domestic workers and colonial legacies / by Sabrina Marchetti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marchetti, Sabrina, author.

Series:

Studies in global social history ; v. 16.

Studies in global migration history ; v. 4.

Studies in Global Social History ; volume 16

Studies in Global Migration History ; volume 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women household employees--Netherlands--Social conditions.

Women household employees.

Women household employees--Italy--Social conditions.

Surinamese--Netherlands--Social conditions.

Surinamese.

Eritreans--Italy--Social conditions.

Eritreans.

Emigration and immigration.

Social aspects.

Social conditions.

Netherlands--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Netherlands.

Suriname--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Suriname.

Italy--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Italy.

Eritrea--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Eritrea.

Netherlands--Colonies.

Colonies.

Italy--Colonies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 200 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, the Netherlands ; Boston : Brill, [2014]

Summary:

In today's Europe, migrant domestic workers are indispensable in supporting many households which, without their employment, would lack sufficient domestic and care labour. Black Girls collects and explores the stories of tome of the tint among these workers. They arc the Afro-Surinamese and the Eritrican women who in the 1960s and 1970s migrated to the former colonising country, the Netherland and Italy respectively, and there and became domestic and care workers, Sabrina Marchetti analyses the narratives of some of these women in order to powerfully demonstrate how the legacies of the colonial past have been, at the same time, both their tool of resistance and the reason for their subordination. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Keywords

Postcoloniality

Black Europe

Memory and identity

Intersectionality

Body work

Home

Postcolonial cultural capital

Differences and similarities in history

Suriname

Colonialism and slavery

Independence

Moving from Suriname to The Netherlands

Migration and racism in The Netherlands

Living in Rotterdam

Afro-Surinamese women in the Dutch care sector

Eritrea

Eritrea's history and Italian colonialism

Eritrea towards independence

Eritrean migration to Italy

Migration and racism in Italy

Eritreans in Rome

Eritrean women in the Italian domestic sector

Part I. Postcolonial migrants

Colonial acculturation and belonging

Black Dutch

The 'ambivalence' of bonds

The case of school education

Paramaribo and Asmara as culture-contact zones

Separation and survival of domestic slavery

A hierarchical cultural contamination

Spatial propinquity and cultures

Hierarchies within 'familiarity'

The case of mass and popular culture

Postcolonial encounters : arriving in Italy and The Netherlands

Class and belonging 'after' the migration

Asymmetries of recognition

The legacy of slavery

Part 2. Migrant domestic labour

A labour niche for postcolonial migrant women

Niche formation and coloniality of power

Substitution across class and 'race'/ethnicity

Religious figure and employment

The 'good' job

Agencies and 'ethnic' representations

Narratives and practices of work and identity

Everyday (domestic) practices and identity

Rhythms and gestures of care

Self-identification between care, cleaning and servitude

Time, tasks and female models

Time, body and enactment of power

Ethnicisation of care and domestic skills

'Ethnicisation' and the right personality

Subservience as a skill

Familiarity with domestic work as a social position

Reversal of hierarchiesrespect and discipline

The case of food and cooking

Racism at work, under colonial legacies

Racism, ressentiment and slavery

Home care as a 'scenario of racism'

Spatial confinement

Bodies : wearing inferiority

Re-enacting colonial times

Conclusions

Appendix I: Notes on the fieldwork

Appendix II: Notes on the interviewees.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004276925

9004276920

OCLC:

876562698