This paper compares the experiences of Moroccan and Filipino women migrating to two Southern European cities, Bologna and Barcelona. Most of the literature dealing with female migration to Southern Europe focuses on women's role and function in the local racialised and gendered labour markets. This paper argues against compart-mentalising immigrant women's productive and reproductive work and calls for gender-sensitive approaches to migration that seek to understand women's migration in a more holistic way. The paper shows, on the one hand, how family, kinship and gender relations in the country of origin influence the migration of both Moroccan and Filipino women; on the other hand, it documents the different ways in which these relations change and get renegotiated through the migration process and in receiving countries. The empirical base of the research consists of 76 in-depth interviews, evenly divided between the cities and the two migrant nationalities, enabling multiple comparative perspectives to emerge. Use is also made of selected individual biographical accounts.

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womens employment Spain gender relations Italy Asian immigrant African immigrant gender role immigrant population