Chapter 13
At the Roots of Home, Away from It:
Meanings, Places, and Values of Home
through the Biographic Narratives of
Immigrant Care Workers in Italy
Paolo Boccagni
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter revisits an archive of life-story interviews
of immigrant care workers in Italy in order to map the underly-
ing placements, meanings, and emotional connotations of the word
“home” (casa). The discursive ways of using this word are connect-
ed to the respondents’ shifting life milieus and orientations toward
receiving and sending societies.
Methodology – The chapter builds on the content analysis of a sub-
set of biographical interviews of immigrant women employed in
live-in care work in Italy.
Findings – Three categories emerge across respondents’ narratives.
Their everyday life experience is based in Home_here-and-now (the
present dwelling place) and thus depends on its often limited inclu-
sive potential. However, their everyday life experience is also affect-
ed by the home conditions in their country of origin (Home_there-
and-now) and by their recollections, understandings, and revisits
of the past home experience prior to migration (Home_there-and-
then). These immigrant women are engaged in an ongoing balanc-
ing act between different spatial and temporal dimensions of what
they frame as home. Critical to their wellbeing is the ability to keep
Contested Belonging: Spaces, Practices, Biographies, 313–332
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doi:10.1108/978-1-78743-206-220181013