Description: Dirty Work explores the lives and work of recent immigrants from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to the southern Italian region of Sicily. Using extensive research, Cole and Booth focus on the experiences of foreigners employed in domestic service, prostitution, and agriculture.
Review Quotes:
"This is a readable and incisive study of the lives of immigrants in Sicily, a place much better known for its emigrants. The authors innovate by focusing on farm labor, domestic service, and prostitution - the "dirty work" immigrants are hired to perform - rather than on specific ethnic or national groups. This approach succeeds in linking the stories of women and men who have come to Sicily in search of better lives to the often oppressive and exploitative structures of the global economy. Dirty Work is essential reading for anyone interested global migration and the changing cultures and economies of Italy and Europe." --Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of New Orleans, David Beriss, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of New Orleans
"Sicily has long been a sending region for migrants but now it is a new frontier for immigration. This book offers new and sometimes heart-wrenching insights into the dirty and dead-end work that immigrants perform, at great personal cost, in agriculture, domestic service, and prostitution. The emphasis on employment sectors rather than immigrant groups offers a refreshing perspective on the underbelly of the global economy." --Caroline B. Brettell, Southern Methodist University