Who Cares? Migrant Women’s Experiences in Italy’s Elderly Care Sector

This thesis explores the lived experiences of migrant women employed as live-in elderly care workers in Italy, focusing on how care is practiced, negotiated and made meaningful at the intersection of gendered, racialized and legal regimes. Situated within a familistic welfare context characterized by limited public provision of elderly care, the study examines how migrant women navigate this complex reality daily. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with migrant care workers based in Genova (Northern Italy), this thesis aims to bridge the gap between macrostructural analyses of migration, welfare retrenchment and care commodification and the everyday practices, meanings and relationships through which care work is lived and negotiated.