New gendered geographies of power? Transnational economic activities of migrant women Emma Corigliano and Lidia Greco University of Bari, Italy

Theoretical perspectives on women and migration Gender-blind theories; Gender as an analytical category; Gendered geographies of power; Women and labour market: - The restructuring of Western economies; - Domestic labour and emotional exploitation.

Alternative paths of incorporation Middlemen minorities; Ethnic business; Ethnic enclave; Female entrepreneurship.

Recent research in Italy Domestic labour: relationships with the employer, content and conditions of employment; Women in self-employment: primarily, cultural analysis of cross-border activities.

Our research: women economic practices Is there another reality beyond the stereotipical image of women working as domestic workers? Are there different paths of incorporation for migrant women? Are there examples indicating discontinuity?

The research methodology Structured interviews with 218 migrants approaching the left wing union (migrants’ labour market is sticky and homogeneizing); Data analysis from the Chamber of Commerce (evidence of a share of women that choose self- employment); 21 in-depth biographical interviews.

Self-employment in the local context: a typology Local businesses – Shops Aim: to contribute to the family income + more autonomy and flexibility ; Strategy: collective rather than individual; Resources: family resources rather than personal ones; Context: demand for low cost products.

Self-employment in the local context: a typology Local self-employed Aim: to produce income + to be a source of personal gratification; Strategy: personal capacity to activate formal and informal networks of relationships at the local level; Resources: individual and collective; Context: local.

Self-employment in the local context: a typology Transnational self-employed Aim: to affirm one’s worth and status in the society of destination; Strategy: personal strategy based on curiosity, wider views and high self-esteem; Resources: individual and class; Context: transnational links.

Self-employment in the local context: a typology Transnational entrepreneurs Cross-borders economic activities Use of waged labour (exclusively female), localised in the country of origin A trust relationship between the entrepreneur and a female member of her family Communitarian and economic strategies along a continuum of gendered relationships

Final market Workers Network of female, transnational and family relationships Entrepreneur Partner Markets for raw materials Country of residence Country of origin

Transnational entrepreneurs Some comments The logic underlying transnational economic links is the “formal rationality”; However in their discourses: “Capitalism is like this: there is always someone who wins and someone else who’s exploited” (Ailinda); Paradoxically they justify this behaviour recalling an ethnic and pre-capitalistic solidarity between women: “I feel bad if I leave them without work. If I get bigger, I do it also for them”

New gendered geographies of power? Transnational economic relationships not neutral but need to be qualified; A new asymmetry seems to come to surface: women who have left/women who were left behind; Power relations oppose not only men/women; women in the north/women in the south but also women in the same community.