Migration, masculinities and reproductive labour

Migration,

Diasporas and

Citizenship

MIGRATION, MASCULINITIES

AND REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR

Ester Gallo and Francesca Scrinzi

Men of the Home

With a foreword by Raewyn Connell

Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship

Series Editors

Robin   Cohen

Department of International Development

University of Oxford

Oxford ,  United Kingdom

Zig   Layton-Henry

Department of Politics and International

University of Warwick

Kenilworth ,  United Kingdom

Editorial Board: Rainer Baubock, European University Institute, Italy;

James F. Hollifi eld, Southern Methodist University, USA; Daniele Joly,

University of Warwick, UK; Jan Rath, University of Amsterdam, Th e

Netherlands.

Th e Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship series covers three impor￾tant aspects of the migration process: fi rstly, the determinants, dynamics

and characteristics of international migration. Secondly, the continuing

attachment of many contemporary migrants to their places of origin,

signifi ed by the word ‘diaspora’, and thirdly, the attempt, by contrast,

to belong and gain acceptance in places of settlement, signifi ed by the

word ‘citizenship’. Th e series publishes work that shows engagement

with and a lively appreciation of the wider social and political issues that

are infl uenced by international migration. Th is series develops from our

Migration, Minorities and Citizenship series, which published leading

fi gures in the fi eld including Steven Vertovec, Daniele Joly, Adrian Favell,

John Rex, Ewa Morawska and Jan Rath.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14044

Ester   Gallo• Francesca   Scrinzi

Migration,

Masculinities and

Reproductive Labour

Men of the Home

Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship

ISBN 978-1-137-37977-1 ISBN 978-1-137-37978-8 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-37978-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936084

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Ester   Gallo

Department of Sociology

Gediz University

Menemen (Izmir) , Turkey

Francesca   Scrinzi

Department of Sociology

University of Glasgow, UK

v

It’s a cliché to say that we live in a globalised world. It’s a fact that we

live in a world of increasing global integration. But that does not mean

a world that has been homogenised. Global economy and global com￾munications transform and merge structures of social relations, often in

intricate ways that produce new boundaries, changed selves, and trou￾bled politics.

Th is is true for gender relations as for other dimensions of society.

Scholarship is gradually coming to terms with the depth of gender’s

enmeshing, for the last 500 years, in global empire and its successor, the

global neoliberal economy. Patterns of masculinity and femininity, gen￾der divisions of labour, gendered state structures, patterns of desire and

hatred are all shaped by this involvement. Th ey are very directly shaped

by one of the most conspicuous features of empire and the postcolonial

economy, the long-distance movement of gendered bodies and popula￾tions. Th at is to say, by migration.

In this notable contribution to migration studies, Ester Gallo and

Francesca Scrinzi off er a carefully theorised account of migrant mascu￾linities that is based on a remarkable piece of research. Th ey have studied

the situations of migrant men and women in Italy for 16 years, accumu￾lating a rich set of interviews and fi eld observations. Th ey have a detailed

knowledge of the research literature on migration, as well as on gender.

Th ey have followed the politics of migration as it changed with the rise

Forew ord

vi Foreword

and fall of parties in the post-Christian-Democrat era of Italian life. Th ey

have connected their fi eldwork with the debates over economic strategy

and European integration, and the panics over “Muslim terrorism” which

have a sharp focus on migrant masculinities.

Gallo and Scrinzi observe that in migration studies, as in most fi elds

of research, a concern with gender has usually meant a concern with

women. Th ere are historical reasons for this, in the feminist eff ort to

redress the non-recognition of women and women’s experience. Yet gen￾der is relational, as the authors emphasise. Indeed, gender involves a whole

structure of relations. Men are as much embroiled in gender relations as

women are. To understand the way the gender order works, understand￾ing men’s situations is as vital as understanding women’s. Above all, we

need to understand those situations together ; and this is what Migration,

Masculinities and Reproductive Labour: Men of the Home does.

Th e book does so eff ectively because it does not treat the situations

of men and women in static or stereotyped ways. Th e authors are well

aware of social stereotypes and their ambiguous power, but they are not

taken in by them. Th e book is full of the evidence of diversity, variation,

and invention in everyday life. Th e position of men is not understood as

one of simple domination. Indeed, some of the most interesting passages

concern migrant men’s dependence , short term or long term, on women,

whether as breadwinning spouses or employers. Th e “moral debt” that

men in care work or domestic work often owe to the women who created

pathways for them and the humiliation of doing women’s work and work￾ing for women are pointers to major issues in changing masculinities.

Th is is to say that Gallo and Scrinzi consistently see gender relations

as historically dynamic. Th ese relations were constructed over time, and

change through time. Th ey change under the pressure of economic and

political events—rising and falling labour demand, softening and hard￾ening immigration regimes, the drama of the War on Terror, and so on.

And they change because of the agency of the migrants themselves,

individually and collectively. Another intensely interesting topic of the

book is the way immigrant men, from positions of cultural and eco￾nomic weakness, may set about reasserting gender privilege in new forms.

Patriarchy is not just “tradition”. As the history of the computer industry

shows, it can be re-created in new shapes suited to new conditions.

Foreword vii

Th e facts of large-scale labour migration require us to think about

gender orders on a world scale. Labour migration from poorer coun￾tries to richer countries is shaped by the long-term history of empire,

and its residues of industrialisation, wealth accumulation, resource poli￾tics, and the information economy. Gallo and Scrinzi are actually writ￾ing about postcolonial relations, not just in Italy—a modern imperial

power though not one of the big empires—but also on a world scale.

Th is is demanded by the super-diversity that is so striking a feature of

contemporary migrant workforces. Among their research participants are

migrants from Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, the Arab world,

South Asia, and the Pacifi c.

Th ey write about postcolonial relations in full awareness of the way

race, religion, and postcoloniality have become infl amed issues in con￾temporary politics. Th ough the research was done before the Syrian civil

war and the European refugee crisis of 2015, the book throws a strong

light on the fear, confusion, and political toxicity that emerged during

these events. Th is is social research that matters.

Gallo and Scrinzi are illuminating about large-scale social structures

and historical dynamics. But they do not lose touch (as so much political

economy does) with the personal and intimate. Th eir topic, reproduc￾tive labour, centrally concerns domestic life, human relations, emotions,

and sexuality. A substantial part of the book addresses the way migrant

men and women negotiate the situations in which the macro-history has

placed them.

Here we see the re-working of masculinities, the re-interpretation of

diff erent kinds of labour, and the networks of relationships—including

continuing links with families in home countries—that the workers build

and sustain. Here we see the projects of social (as well as geographical)

mobility in which many of the men are engaged; the hopes as well as the

fears in their personal agendas.

Th e topic is paid reproductive work, and one of the most striking things

about this study is that it also documents the experience of employers.

Th e men and women who pay for this work, in whose households the

care work and housework are done, are also part of the changing gen￾der order. In many discussions of ‘care chains’ the employer is just an

abstract middle-class white woman in the global metropole, benefi ting

viii Foreword

from third-world poverty.

Gallo and Scrinzi show the situation is much more complex and

interesting than this. Ruling-class families are also involved, and some

working- class families too; and diff erent patterns of employment may

result from the class dynamics. Faithful to their relational view of gen￾der, Gallo and Scrinzi point to the involvement of men as employers

of domestic labour. Chapter 5 provides rare, and extremely interesting,

evidence on men’s strategies and practices as domestic employers, and

the ways they are nuanced by Italian men’s constructions of masculinity.

Th is is a book that deals carefully with large, immensely complex

issues; but also works at a human level and gives insight into emotion,

hopes, and fears. It off ers a national case study, but does that in a way that

illuminates situations around the world. It is based on careful, thought￾ful, long-term study; we can rightly call this “in-depth” research.

I hope its fi ndings will be noted not just in a specialised fi eld but

widely among social scientists working to understand contemporary soci￾eties and their transformations. And I hope Gallo and Scrinzi’s approach

and fi ndings will be appreciated by the policy-makers who have to steer

a humane and informed course on migration issues, in an environment

now heavy with fear, hatred, and misrepresentation. If social science really

can help social policy, this is the kind of research that will do it.

Raewyn   Connell

Sydney

December 2015

ix

Th e idea of this book originated in the middle of a cold and grey

Scottish winter in 2009: over tea and cakes, we started to exchange

our research experiences and ideas on gender, migration, and paid and

unpaid care/domestic work and to plan future joint investigations on

the under-researched topic of migrant masculinities. We thus owe a debt

of gratitude to Katharine Charsley for putting us in contact, creating

an occasion for collaboration and friendship. Since then, our work has

greatly benefi ted from the insightful comments and generous support

of many colleagues. Our fi rst co-authored work on this topic was pre￾sented in 2012 at the conference organised by Helma Lutz, Transforming

Gender Orders: Intersections of Care, Family and Migration, held at

the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main. We are grateful to Rosie

Cox, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Eleonore Kofman, Sonya Michel,

Mirjana Morokvasic, Fiona Williams, and other conference participants

for involving us, over the years, in a stimulating debate on the future

directions of studies of gender, migration, and reproductive labour and

for their helpful feedback at diff erent stages of the writing process. We

would like to thank Paolo Boccagni, Rebecca Kay, Michael Kimmel,

Elisabetta Ruspini, Raff aella Sarti, and Anna Triandafyllidou for their

Acknowledgements

x Acknowledgements

comments, support, and encouragement throughout the process and

Raewyn Connell for her trust and interest in our work. Th e book has

also benefi ted from the comments of two anonymous reviewers from

Palgrave. Last but not least, Philippa Grand and Judith Allan have pro￾vided helpful guidance and have been very patient with the many delays

in delivering the manuscript.

We dedicate this book to all the migrant women and men who live and

work in Italy, challenging racism daily and making it a better place at

these diffi cult times.

xi

Endorsements

‘Th is pioneering monograph on migrant men and domestic work off ers

unique perspectives on a globally diverse set of migrant men cleaning,

caring and tending to people in Italy. It is a must-read for anyone inter￾ested in men, migration and reproductive labor.’

— Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo ,

University of Southern California, USA

‘Th e authors are to be congratulated for an incisive and innovative analy￾sis of gender, migration and the international division of reproductive

labour which challenges the dichotomy between hegemonic masculinity

and subordinate forms of femininity. Based on rich ethnographic research

extending over a decade, the book highlights the construction of mascu￾linity in the private sphere and not just in public spaces and institutions,

and the multiple roles of men as providers, carers, fathers and husbands.’

— Eleonore Kofman ,

Middlesex University, UK

‘Globalized care work has long been considered a female domain, whether

one is talking about the caregivers or the consumers. Th is original and

important book opens up a new dimension in the study of contemporary

migration and social reproduction by focusing on masculinities and the

role of men. Drawing on ethnography, interviews and narratives over

xii Endorsements

time and using Italy as a case study, Gallo and Scrinzi challenge exist￾ing theories of masculinity as well as perceptions of care work. Th rough

sensitive interpretations of their own data, they off er fresh insights into

how gender, along with race, ethnicity and, especially in Italy, religion

shape care labour, and how male migrants’ negotiations of their situa￾tions aff ect family dynamics in both sending and receiving countries.

Migration, Masculinities and Reproductive Labour: Men of the Home is

bound to become an instant classic in the fi eld’.

— Sonya Alice Michel ,

University of Maryland, USA

‘Th is book off ers a highly original and critical contribution to the scholarly

debate on reproductive labour, global care chains and gender. Francesca

Scrinzi and Ester Gallo explore how migrant men enter the area of repro￾ductive labour seeking for respectable and legal employment, how they

thus address criminalisation and racialization discourses and seek to stra￾tegically turn them on their head. Th is book unpacks the many facets

of masculinity in care work casting new light to our understanding of

gendered migrations.’

— Anna Triandafyllidou ,

European University Institute, Italy

xiii

Contents

1 Introduction: Men and Masculinities in the 

International Division of Reproductive Labour 1

Masculinities, Migration, and Globalisation 2

Men as Consumers and Providers of Reproductive Labour 9

Researching Migrant Men in Italy 18

Outline of the Book 25

Bibliography 30

2 Migrant Men in Europe and Beyond: Historical and 

Sociological Perspectives 37

Gendering Male Migration in a Global Context 39

Gendered Migration and Labour in Contemporary Europe 42

Migrant Women and Men in Contemporary Italy 45

Gendered Intersections of Care and Migration in 

Contemporary Italy 49

Masculinity, Care, and Domestic Labour 57

Economic Crisis and the Remasculinisation of 

Reproductive Labour in Italy 60

Gendered and Racialised Hierarchies in Domestic/Care

Labour 64

Conclusion 69

Bibliography 70

xiv Contents

3 Gender, Racism, and Migrant Reproductive

Labour in Italy and Europe 85

Racialisation and Migrant Labour in Contemporary Europe 86

Gendered Processes of Racialisation 89

Gender, Religion, and Multi-culturalism 93

Party Politics and the Political Discourse on 

Immigration in Italy 97

Th e Catholic Church and Immigration in Italy 104

Religion and the Gendered Racialisation of 

Migrants in Italy 108

Th e Role of the Catholic Church in the Organisation

of Domestic/Care Services in Italy 111

Migrant Masculinities and Domestic/Care Labour in Italy 115

Conclusion 119

Bibliography 120

4 Migrant Men Doing ‘Women’s Work’ 131

Men Seeking ‘Women’s Jobs’ 133

Strategies of Male Domestic/Care Workers 141

Migrant Men Engaging in Emotional Labour 151

Migrant Men’s Professional Mobility in Reproductive Labour 160

Conclusion 164

Bibliography 166

5 Masculinities and Work Relations in the Home 171

Becoming Employers: Between Ideologies and Practices 174

Masculinity and Household Security 180

Masculinities, Personalism, and Class 188

Masculinities, Religion, and Respectability in Work Relations 197

Conclusion 200

Bibliography 201

6 Masculinity, Reproductive Labour, and 

Transnational Families 205

Waiting Husbands 207

Masculinity, Illegality, and Domestic/Care Services 212