‘Where are you from' in the domestic labour market. The employment of immigrants in Italy through life course analysis

This paper analyses how nationality and ethnic origin in hiring impact on immigrant women employment in the domestic labour sector. Referring to a life course analysis, we ask how immigrant job seekers use ethnic categories and social networks to fin a job, to change their administrative status, to manage family and transnational ties.

Based on three case studies in Italy and on deep-interviews, we propose an original framework to analyse public policies and their power of crating boundaries between Europeans and “Extra-communitarian” foreigners (non EU), and to understand the strategies that immigrants can use to overcome difficulties and/or administrative deadlocks.