Black Girls: Migrant Domestic Workers and Colonial Legacies

215 Pages·2014·1.06 MB·English

by  Sabrina Marchetti

Black Girls
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Studies in Global
Social History
VOLUME 16
Studies in Global
Migration History
Editor
Dirk Hoerder (Arizona State University, Phoenix, az)
Editorial Board
Bridget Anderson (University of Oxford)
Dennis Cordell (Southern Methodist University, Dallas, tx)
Adam Hanieh (soas, University of London)
Immanuel Ness (City University of New York)
Jose Moya (Barnard College, Columbia University)
Brenda Yeoh (National University of Singapore)
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobaliis Zamindar (Brown University)
Min Zhou (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
VOLUME 4
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sgmh
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Black Girls
Migrant Domestic Workers and Colonial Legacies
By
Sabrina Marchetti
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Photograph by Gisella Sorrentino (www.gisellasorrentino.com).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marchetti, Sabrina.
 Black girls : migrant domestic workers and colonial legacies / by Sabrina Marchetti.
  pages cm. -- (Studies in global social history, ISSN 1874-6705 ; volume 16) (Studies in global migration
history ; volume 4)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-27692-5 (hardback : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27693-2 (e-book) 1. Women
household employees--Netherlands--Social conditions. 2. Women household employees--Italy--Social
conditions. 3. Surinamese--Netherlands--Social conditions. 4. Eritreans--Italy--Social conditions.
5. Netherlands--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects. 6. Suriname--Emigration and immigration-
-Social aspects. 7. Italy--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects. 8. Eritrea--Emigration and
immigration--Social aspects. 9. Netherlands--Colonies. 10. Italy--Colonies. I. Title.
 HD6072.2.N4M37 2014
 331.4086’91--dc23
              2014014320
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issn 1874-6705
isbn 978-90-04-27692-5 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-27693-2 (e-book)
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To the memory of my grandmothers
and in honour of Nabruka Mimouni
∵
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Tables xiv
Introduction 1
1 Keywords 12
1 Postcoloniality 12
2 Black Europe 16
3 Memory and Identity 19
4 Intersectionality 21
5 Body Work 25
6 Home 29
7 Postcolonial Cultural Capital 31
2 Differences and Similarities in History 35
Suriname 36
Colonialism and Slavery 36
Independence 38
Moving from Suriname to the Netherlands 39
Migration and Racism in the Netherlands 41
Living in Rotterdam 42
Afro-Surinamese Women in the Dutch Care Sector 43
Eritrea 45
Eritrea’s History and Italian Colonialism 45
Eritrea towards Independence  48
Eritrean Migration to Italy 50
Migration and Racism in Italy 51
Eritreans in Rome 53
Eritrean Women in the Italian Domestic Sector 54
part 1
Postcolonial Migrants
3 Colonial Acculturation and Belonging 57
1 Black Dutch 58
2 The ‘Ambivalence’ of Bonds 61
3 The Case of School Education 63
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viii Contents
4 Paramaribo and Asmara as Culture-Contact Zones 71
1 Separation and Survival of Domestic Slavery 72
2 A Hierarchical Cultural Contamination 75
3 Spatial Propinquity and Cultures 77
4 Hierarchies within ‘Familiarity’ 80
5 The Case of Mass and Popular Culture 82
5 Postcolonial Encounters: Arriving in Italy and in the Netherlands 89
1 Class and Belonging ‘after’ the Migration 91
2 Asymmetries of Recognition 93
3 The Legacy of Slavery 96
part 2
Migrant Domestic Labour
6 A Labour Niche for Postcolonial Migrant Women 101
1 Niche Formation and Coloniality of Power 102
2 Substitution across Class and ‘Race’/Ethnicity 105
3 Religious Figures and Employment 107
4 The ‘Good’ Job 109
5 Agencies and ‘Ethnic’ Representations 111
7 Narratives and Practices of Work and Identity 114
1 Everyday (Domestic) Practices and Identity 114
2 Rhythms and Gestures of Care 116
3 Self-Identifications between Care, Cleaning and Servitude 119
4 Time, Tasks and Female Models 122
5 Time, Body and Enactment of Power 124
8 Ethnicisation of Care and Domestic Skills 129
1 ‘Ethnicisation’ and the Right Personality 130
2 Subservience as a Skill 132
3 Familiarity with Domestic Work as a Social Position 135
4 Reversal of Hierarchies 136
5 Respect and Discipline  140
6 The Case of Food and Cooking 142
9 Racism at Work, under Colonial Legacies 148
1 Racism, Ressentiment and Slavery 148
2 Home Care as a ‘Scenario of Racism’ 151
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Contents ix
3 Spatial Confinement 153
4 Bodies: Wearing Inferiority 156
5 Re-Enacting Colonial Times 158
Conclusions 162
Appendices
I Notes on the Fieldwork 169
II Notes on the Interviewees 177
Bibliography 183
Index 201
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