'Paid Domestic Work and Postcoloniality : The perspective of Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrant women to Italy and the Netherlands' a talk by Dr. Sabrina Marchetti at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 20th January 2014
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Common Room, Annexe Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘Paid Domestic Work and Postcoloniality : The perspective of Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrant women to Italy and the Netherlands’ by Dr. Sabrina Marchetti, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
Abstract: This presentation is based on thirty in-depth interviews with domestic workers who came from Eritrea to Italy and from Suriname to the Netherlands in the years 1960s and 1970s. The importance of the comparison between the two groups lies in the fact that once in the country of their former colonisers, both Afro-Surinamese and Eritrean women were channelled into domestic and care work. Starting from this observation, the speaker will show how for both groups of women, working and life trajectories have been determined by comparable representations shaped by gender, ethnicity and class that have to do with the realm of postcoloniality in which they have been shaped. In fact, these representations are the reason for the overrepresentation of these women in the low level niche of caring and cleaning work both in Italy and in the Netherlands. Yet, in this comparison, significant differences also emerge which can be put in connection with the different way the coloniser-colonised relationships was shaped in the Eritrean and the Surinamese contexts, namely plantation slavery in Suriname and military exploitation in Eritrea. By highlighting these similarities and differences, the speaker will illustrate the ways Afro-Surinamese and Eritrean interviewees ‘use’, in their narratives, the historical bonds with former colonisers in order to enhance the legacies of the colonial pasts in their labour experiences. Focusing on this case study, this paper engages with the current debate on the global division of reproductive labour drawing attention to the historical legacies which, especially in the light of a past colonial tie, affect the relationships between employers and employees. In particular, it contributes to a more historically grounded account of the process of ‘othering’ to which migrant domestic and care workers are exposed, by looking at the colonial roots of the images that nurture today the representation of these workers.
Speaker: Dr. Sabrina Marchetti is Jean Monnet fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. She has received her PhD in Gender and Ethnicity from Utrecht University in 2010. As visiting fellow, she has recently stayed at the University of Linköping and at the University of Southern California. Dr. Marchetti has mainly specialised on issues of gender and migration, with a specific focus on the question of migrant domestic work. From a comparative perspective, she has studied the case of Filipino, Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrants in Italy and the Netherlands. Her last project focused on the case of Polish, Ukrainian and Georgian home-care workers in Italy on the basis of interviews with workers and their Italian employers. She is engaged in several networks of scholars and activists, amongst which the Research Network on Domestic Workers’ Rights.
Related Events : Women | Talks | History
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Common Room, Annexe Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘Paid Domestic Work and Postcoloniality : The perspective of Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrant women to Italy and the Netherlands’ by Dr. Sabrina Marchetti, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
Abstract: This presentation is based on thirty in-depth interviews with domestic workers who came from Eritrea to Italy and from Suriname to the Netherlands in the years 1960s and 1970s. The importance of the comparison between the two groups lies in the fact that once in the country of their former colonisers, both Afro-Surinamese and Eritrean women were channelled into domestic and care work. Starting from this observation, the speaker will show how for both groups of women, working and life trajectories have been determined by comparable representations shaped by gender, ethnicity and class that have to do with the realm of postcoloniality in which they have been shaped. In fact, these representations are the reason for the overrepresentation of these women in the low level niche of caring and cleaning work both in Italy and in the Netherlands. Yet, in this comparison, significant differences also emerge which can be put in connection with the different way the coloniser-colonised relationships was shaped in the Eritrean and the Surinamese contexts, namely plantation slavery in Suriname and military exploitation in Eritrea. By highlighting these similarities and differences, the speaker will illustrate the ways Afro-Surinamese and Eritrean interviewees ‘use’, in their narratives, the historical bonds with former colonisers in order to enhance the legacies of the colonial pasts in their labour experiences. Focusing on this case study, this paper engages with the current debate on the global division of reproductive labour drawing attention to the historical legacies which, especially in the light of a past colonial tie, affect the relationships between employers and employees. In particular, it contributes to a more historically grounded account of the process of ‘othering’ to which migrant domestic and care workers are exposed, by looking at the colonial roots of the images that nurture today the representation of these workers.
Speaker: Dr. Sabrina Marchetti is Jean Monnet fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. She has received her PhD in Gender and Ethnicity from Utrecht University in 2010. As visiting fellow, she has recently stayed at the University of Linköping and at the University of Southern California. Dr. Marchetti has mainly specialised on issues of gender and migration, with a specific focus on the question of migrant domestic work. From a comparative perspective, she has studied the case of Filipino, Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrants in Italy and the Netherlands. Her last project focused on the case of Polish, Ukrainian and Georgian home-care workers in Italy on the basis of interviews with workers and their Italian employers. She is engaged in several networks of scholars and activists, amongst which the Research Network on Domestic Workers’ Rights.
Related Events : Women | Talks | History
'Paid Domestic Work and Postcoloniality : The perspective of Eritrean and Afro-Surinamese migrant women to Italy and the Netherlands' a talk by Dr. Sabrina Marchetti at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 20th January 2014
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Monday, January 20, 2014
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