Vivo nell'ombra. Oppressione intersezionale delle care-givers straniere in un contesto italiano

Domestic and carer work can bring about intersectional oppression of women, with detrimental effects on their health. This is the case of foreign caregivers who willingly undertake carer work in the transnational labour market and even though regulated by law, marginalizes the worker involved. This article offers the results of ethnographic research conducted in a central-southern Italian province and highlights conditions of the structural suffering of women who experience regret, unease, depression, and guilt somatization – the so-called "Italy syndrome" – especially when it is time to return home. Some even decide not to go back to their homeland and families, lingering in the transitory condition that had been an initial plan. Like many migrant workers, these caregivers make short-term life projects that aim to bring advances for them, their families, and the families of their charges, but in the long term prove to be distressing on a psychological, relational, and environmental level. This analysis of the situations of oppression and subjugation - but also situations of resistance - highlights the daily reproduction of systems of power, which are experienced, embodied and reproduced by social actors.

家政与护理工作会对女性造成交叉性压迫，并对其健康产生有害影响。这一现象可见于自愿投身跨国劳动力市场从事护理工作的外籍护工群体：即便该类工作受法律规范，仍会对从业者造成边缘化处境。本文呈现了在意大利中南部某省份开展的民族志研究成果，重点揭示了承受结构性苦难的女性群体的生存状态——这些女性常陷入懊悔、焦虑、抑郁与愧疚躯体化的情绪折磨，尤以临近返乡之际为甚，此种状态被称为“意大利综合征”。部分女性甚至选择不再返回故土与家人身边，滞留在原本仅作为临时安排的过渡性处境之中。与诸多务工移民一样，这些护工制定了短期人生规划，旨在改善自身、家人以及其所照料对象的家庭的生活境况，但从长远来看，此种规划却在心理、人际与环境层面带来了诸多痛苦。本文通过对压迫与臣服乃至反抗情境的分析，揭示了权力体系的日常再生产逻辑——这一过程由社会行动者亲身感知、具身体验并不断复刻。