WOMEN MIGRANT WORKERS IN ITALY

While Italy has had much experience of both internal and external migration, an increasing number of migrants have recently settled in Italy. There has been a general tendency for women's involvement in migration to be overlooked, and emphasis placed on male migration. This article will thus look specifically at the experience of black women migrants in Italy. This article will demonstrate that gender has been a significant factor in women's experience of the migratory process within the Italian context, but that their race and status as migrants are also factors that contribute to their overall position in Italian society. I will argue that the different response to the presence of female migrants when compared to male migrants is due to a number of factors but that the short- and long-term consequences of this differential treatment have both positive and negative implications.