The traffic in women's work : East European migration and the making of Europe

196 Pages·2014·1.168 MB·English

by  Parvulescu, Anca

The Traffi c in Women’s Work

The Traffi c
in Women’s
Work
East European Migration
and the Making of Europe
Anca Parvulescu
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Anca Parvulescu is associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She is
the author of Laughter: Notes on a Passion.
Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 
Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
©  by Th e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published .
Printed in the United States of America
              
ISBN- : ---- (cloth)
ISBN- : ---- (paper)
ISBN- : ---- (e- book)
DOI: ./chicago/..
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parvulescu, Anca, author.
Th e traffi c in women’s work : East European migration and the making of
Europe / Anca Parvulescu.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---- (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN ----
(pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN ---- (e-book) . Women immigrants—
Abuse of—European Union countries. . Women—Europe, Eastern—Social
conditions. . Human traffi cking—European Union countries. I. Title.
JV.P 
.—dc

o Th is paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z.–  (Permanence
of Paper).
For my parents

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. European Kinship
East European Women Go to Market 21
2. Import/Export
Housework in an International Frame 49
3. The Female Homo Sacer
The Traffi c in Coerced Reproduction 69
4. “Give Me Your Passport”
The Traffi c in Women in a “Europe without Borders” 95
5. Ways Out
Hospitality and Free Love 123
Notes 147
Index 179
vii

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the colleagues who, in various forms, have
engaged with my project: Iver Bernstein, J. Dillon Brown, Colin
Burnett, Adrienne Davis, Deborah Dinner, Steven Meyer, Linda
Nicholson, Paula Rabinowitz, Carolyn Sargent, Jani Scandura, Wolf-
ram Schmidgen, and Rebecca Wanzo. I would also like to thank the
chairs of my two departments, Vincent Sherry and Joe Loewen-
stein, for their support over the last few years.
Julia Musha and Kate Fama helped me edit the manuscript. I am
grateful to my undergraduate research assistant, Kristen Valaika,
for her invaluable work. Undergraduate students enrolled in three
versions of a course titled “Th e Traffi c in Women and European Cin-
ema” have off ered the best experimental public forum I could have
wished for.
Th e project benefi ted from support from the American Councils
for International Education, the Center for the Humanities at Wash-
ington University, and the dean’s offi ce at Washington University.
Chapters  and  have been previously published as “European
Kinship: Eastern European Women Go to Market” (Critical Inquiry
, no.  [Winter ]: – ) and “Import/Export: House-
work in an International Frame” (PMLA , no.  [October ]:
– ).
ix