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At home in home care? Contents and boundaries of the ‘domestic’ among immigrant live-in workers in Italy

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  • Paolo Boccagni

Abstract

How ‘at home’, if at all, migrants feel in their everyday lives abroad is a neglected research issue, with meaningful implications for immigrant, social and housing policies. Their employment as live-in care workers with elderly clients is a unique site to address it, as this article aims to do, based on an archive of life histories of immigrant women in Italy. Co-residential domestic work foregrounds migrants’ need for a domestic space of their own, within the place of someone else. Building on immigrant women’s narratives, I explore what senses and dimensions of domesticity, or even of home, are negotiated in their routine interactions with older clients and the latter’s family members. Within a dwelling place which conflates work and domesticity, the cognitive, emotional and practical dimensions of migrants’ gendered home experience are nothing obvious. How is home-making – as a set of practices oriented to pursue security, familiarity and control – enacted under these circumstances? Is the cultivation of a sense of home beneficial to the clients only, or do immigrant women themselves feel at home somehow? Different ‘modes of domesticity’ are discussed, at the intersection between continuous expectations of home-making and discontinuous ways of feeling at home.

Suggested Citation

  • Paolo Boccagni, 2018. "At home in home care? Contents and boundaries of the ‘domestic’ among immigrant live-in workers in Italy," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 813-831, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:33:y:2018:i:5:p:813-831
    DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2017.1367366
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    Cited by:

    1. Oliver Fisher, 2021. "The Impact of Micro and Macro Level Factors on the Working and Living Conditions of Migrant Care Workers in Italy and Israel—A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-33, January.
    2. Oliver Fisher & Paolo Fabbietti & Giovanni Lamura, 2021. "Socio-Economic Predictors of Hiring Live-In Migrant Care Workers to Support Community Dwelling Older Adults with Long-Term Care Needs: Recent Evidence from a Central Italian Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Cieplinski, André & D'Alessandro, Simone & Dwarkasing, Chandni & Guarnieri, Pietro, 2023. "Narrowing women’s time and income gaps: An assessment of the synergies between working time reduction and universal income schemes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

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