BADANTI STRANIERE E DONNE ANZIANE NEL GRUPPO DOMESTICO: IMMAGINI E TRASFORMAZIONI DELLE RELAZIONI DI CURA

This research is focused on the caring relationship between elderly women and their migrant domestic caregivers. Our collection of conversations among migrant domestic caregivers, elderly women, daughters, and social workers in the area of Verona is centered on the caring relationship, the problems, and the resources which occur in their everyday life. The story-telling brings out many points of view about both social and domestic transformations. The stories concerning aging and caring proposed by mass-media and literature promote a further reflection on the social representation of adult and elderly, native and migrant women. The research is based on a qualitative approach, following an hermeneutical feminist analysis which allows transformation processes to take place through the enhancement of the various views and resources of the participants. According to these conversations, the study brings out some topics showing the relative proposals for an educative work with adult and elderly, native and migrant women: • The ambivalence that the migrant women live in a context of under-evaluation of caring in the domestic environment; • The importance of a mutual recognition between the migrant caregivers and the daughters of the elderly women; • The various ways and resources which characterize the caring relationship and the interchange, both for the elderly women and for their assistants; • Some elements of attention to the risks of institutional and domestic violence for migrant caregivers; • The role of migrant women in accompanying to the death.