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Just Like One of the Family? Gender, Ethnicity and Migrant Status among Filipino Domestic Workers in Rome

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Women, Work and Inequality
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Abstract

This chapter examines the causes and mechanisms of Filipino workers’ concentration in Rome’s domestic service sector. The underlying argument is that while ethnicity and migrant status are crucial in determining access to, and segregation into, this specific segment of the labour market, the latter is also cross-cut by gender. Thus, although both Filipino men and women are primarily employed in domestic service, there are significant differences in work arrangements, duties and conditions which reflect normative gender roles on both demand and supply sides. The discussion draws on doctoral research conducted in Rome in 1994–5, involving structured interviews with 154 Filipino migrant workers (123 women and 31 men), indepth interviews with a subsample of 38 respondents and semi-structured interviews with ten Italian employers.1

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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Tacoli, C. (1999). Just Like One of the Family? Gender, Ethnicity and Migrant Status among Filipino Domestic Workers in Rome. In: Gregory, J., Sales, R., Hegewisch, A. (eds) Women, Work and Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983331_7

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