Migration and transnational family: women domestic workers in Greece

In my presentation I will examine the issue of migrant women who have arrived since 1990 from Eastern Europe and the Balkans in Greece and who usually work as domestic workers, employed for services mainly related to child and elderly care. The research on migrant women domestic workers, based on the biographical method and focused on the trajectory of migrant families, shows that the difficult and low-paid working conditions as well as the impasse that these women experience due to the current Greek economic situation, deepen the dependence and isolation inherent to domestic work. The question that appears crucial in terms of migration, precariousness of domestic work, difficult family relations and the new types of (transnational) family is how one may come to understand family, its force and resilience as well as the real and emotional distance between the migrant family members.

Katerina Vassilikou holds a doctorate in Social Sciences–Sociology from the University of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. She works as a Research Associate in the Research Center for Greek Society of the Academy of Athens. Her research interests focus on women’s migration, transnational family, domestic work, migration networks, diaspora and the sociology of health. She has published a book, a research monograph and many articles and chapters in collective volumes on the above issues. She has taught in the National School of Public Health, the Hellenic Open University and in various post-graduate programs in Greece and participated in European and national projects of social research as a researcher and expert.

Seminar will be held in English. No registration is needed.