This paper analyses the domestic work of foreign women through the prism of cultural complexity. The Author argues that, nowadays, the visibility of migrant women depends on structural changes in Western societies and on the increasing interest in reproduction process developed by gender studies. However this phenomenon must be studied through local perspective, in order to allow a better understanding of interactions between micro and macro phenomena. To demonstrate the advantages of this approach, in the first part the paper places the problem of migrant women in Italy in the larger frame of modern mobilities and relates it to past migrations. In the second part, a case-study done in the Vesuvian area (Neaples) is presented. Cultural dynamics between migrants and natives are analysed from the point of view of women from Western European countries who work as full or part-time domestic helpers. The research shows that, to do their job, these women have to acquire a new "domestic habits". The Neapolitan case demonstrates that, to study recent migrations, the gender dimension must be introduced in order to integrate the various aspects of the migratory project and to measure the influence of economic factors according to the different situations and the relations that mobility has with sedentary life and reproduction sphere.

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gender relations Italy domestic work cultural relations womens status immigrant population