| Soviet Signoras: Personal and Collective Transformations in Eastern European Migration Contributor(s): Cvajner, Martina (Author) |
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ISBN: 022666225X ISBN-13: 9780226662251 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $96.03 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - General - Social Science | Emigration & Immigration - History | Europe - Italy |
| Dewey: 305.484 |
| LCCN: 2019012199 |
| Series: Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.9" W x 9.1" (1.10 lbs) 272 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Italy - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Across the Western world, the air is filled with talk of immigration. The changes brought by immigration have triggered a renewed fervor for isolationism able to shutter political traditions and party systems. So often absent from these conversations on migration are however the actual stories and experiences of the migrants themselves. In fact, migration does not simply transport people. It also changes them deeply. Enter Martina Cvajner's Soviet Signoras, a far-reaching ethnographic study of two decades in the lives of women who migrated to northern Italy from several former Soviet republics. Cvajner details the personal and collective changes brought about by the experience of migration for these women: from the first hours arriving in a new country with no friends, relatives, or existing support networks, to later remaking themselves for their new environment. In response to their traumatic displacement, the women of Soviet Signoras--nearly all of whom found work in their new Western homes as elder care givers--refashioned themselves in highly sexualized, materialistic, and intentionally conspicuous ways. Cvajner's focus on overt sexuality and materialism is far from sensationalist, though. By zeroing in on these elements of personal identity, she reveals previously unexplored sides of the social psychology of migration, coloring our contemporary discussion with complex shades of humanity. |
Contributor Bio(s): Cvajner, Martina: - Martina Cvajner is assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Trento. |