ABSTRACT
Recent studies on international migration have paid special attention to
the transnational perspective, a new branch of the sociology of migration
studying the process through which migrants build social fields that link the
countries of origin and destination. The economic transnationalism connected to
the great phenomenon of remittances—financial, material or immaterial—is one relevant aspect of this field of study. Remittances are ambivalent because they can be interpreted either as a medium of consolidation of transnational
ties or as a bond linking migrant women to the country of origin. Our target
is, in fact, those migrant women who carry out in Italy a particular work of
care: the badanti, or informal caregivers. As such, they constitute an
important resource of the Italian welfare system, characterized as it is by an
important family component. Any migratory phenomenon is, by nature, complex and
dynamic, with different historical, economic and social characteristics.
Moreover, it operates changes at many levels. The caring work done by badanti, as well as the transnational links
represented by cross-border remittances, takes place and must be read within
this broader dynamics. The research question for this paper is (exactly) that whether remittances are mainly bonds or
mainly ties for badanti, relative to other migrant workers employed in the care sector. We use qualitative and quantitative data from
the Prin 2004 research project1 concerning nationality,
gender and class in new house holding work in Italy. After describing this phenomenon and its peculiarities, we shall analyze the
mechanisms that originate it, and establish correlations with the surrounding
context.