Deconstructing Essentialism: Migrant Women in Stratified Labour Markets

This book explores how essentialism shapes the social and professional paths of migrant women with tertiary education, limiting their employment opportunities. It highlights the role of migrant women and labor market gatekeepers in resisting and challenging essentialism, and proposes a deconstruction of essentialism to promote more equal access to employment.

Format: Hardback
Length: 150 pages
Publication date: 07 October 2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This book offers a novel approach to examining the social and occupational paths of migrant women with tertiary education. It delves into the role of essentialism in stratifying labor markets based on gender, class, and racialization, as well as restricting the employment opportunities of migrant women. Through multi-sited fieldwork conducted in France and Italy, the book emphasizes how essentialism shapes the evaluation of work abilities, highlighting that skills are socially constructed and valued based on the individuals who possess them. It further highlights that migrant women and labor market gatekeepers are not merely passively accepting essentialism but are also actively resisting and challenging this process. By deconstructing essentialism, we gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that create stratifications and can develop strategies to promote more equitable access to employment.

This book proposes an original approach to analyse the social and professional trajectories of migrant women with tertiary education. It focuses on the role of essentialism in stratifying labour markets based on gender, class and racialisation, and in limiting migrant women s employment opportunities. Based on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in France and Italy, the book highlights how essentialism influences the assessment of working capacities, stressing that skills are socially constructed and valued depending on who embodies them. It also emphasises that migrant women and labour market gatekeepers are not only passively accepting essentialism,but some are also resisting and eventually challenging this process. Deconstructing essentialism enables us to better understand the mechanisms that produce stratifications and aids in designing paths towards more equal access to employment.

Weight: 350g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031143984
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022