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An Alliance of Women Immigration and the Politics of Race Heather Merrill |
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$75.00 Cloth |
An innovative exploration of urban Italian politics, immigration, and European identity. In the 1980s, Italy transformed from a country of emigration to one of immigration. Italians are now faced daily with the presence of migrants from all over Africa, parts of South and Central America, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. While much attention has been paid to the impact on Italians, few studies have focused on the agency of migrants themselves. In An Alliance of Women, Heather Merrill investigates how migrants and Italians struggle over meanings and negotiate social and cultural identities. Taking as a starting point the Italian crisis over immigration in the early 1990s, Merrill examines grassroots interethnic spatial politics among female migrants and Turin feminists in Northern Italy. Using rich ethnographic material, she traces the emergence of Alma Mater—an anti-racist organization formed to address problems encountered by migrant women. Through this analysis, Merrill reveals the dynamics of an alliance consisting of women from many countries of origin and religious and class backgrounds. Highlighting an interdisciplinary approach to migration and the instability of group identities in contemporary Italy, An Alliance of Women presents migrants grappling with spatialized boundaries amid growing nativist and anti-immigrant sentiment in Western Europe. “An Alliance of Women details the challenges the members of an immigrant women’s organization face in negotiating their social and cultural identities in late 20th century Italy. Anyone seeking to learn more about immigrants, immigrant organizations, labor movements, and gender politic in Turin specifically will rejoice in this books richness.” —Urban Geography “Heather Merrill’s scrupulous and at the same time passionate ethnographic approach offers a research methodology that allows her to explore, analyse and discuss in detail the limits and the potentials of this experience of inter-ethnic women’s alliance in contemporary Italy. Moreover, the narrative style adopted by the author makes the book enjoyable to read not only to academics but also to a wider public of readers, including pro-immigrants activists, feminists and policymakers alike. Highly recommended reading to all those interested in understanding the complex intersection of gender, class, cultural-ethnic and also spatial senses of belonging in the shaping of contemporary forms of international migration.” —Social and Cultural Geography “Merrill’s methodological approach makes her research project broadly informative as well as historically deep, as if it grew horizontally and vertically at once. Designated as a book of anthropology and geography, the two fields in which Merrill has been active as a scholar, this volume has potentials for larger applications. It is a valid contribution to the topic of immigration within a global perspective in such diverse fields as ethnic studies, cultural studies, women’s studies, as well as Italian studies. The book offers a precise look at an inspiring Italian case that provides the opportunity to productively explore the complexities of contemporary Italy in its struggle between intractable self-forged myths of homogeneity and always new and challenging forms of internal difference.” —Italian Culture “A rigorous examination rich in the narrative of migrant women.” —Reference and Research Book News “Alliance of Women offers a compelling account of the constant struggle to find a common ground amongst women who identify with distinct national, ethnic, racialized, and gendered roles in local and diasporic settings.” —Gender, Place, & Culture Heather Merrill is assistant professor of geography and anthropology at Dickinson College. 272 pages | 20 halftones | 5 7⁄8 x 9 | 2006
Introduction: Immigration and the Spatial Politics of Scale 1. The Spatial Politics of Race and Gender Conclusion: Speaking Subjects Notes |
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$25.00 Paper