Poles in Italy.

The interview texts presented in this chapter come from a larger set of 15 loosely structured life-story interviews conducted with Polish immigrants who arrived in Italy after 1989 (five men and ten women). Six among our interviewees had legal residence and work status in Italy at the time of the interview, while the remaining nine were undocumented. These nine were all employed as housekeepers and care providers in Italian families. Our interviewees were mainly young and middle-aged women (aged between 23 and 57), most of whom were married. Seven of them had children who lived in Poland, while one woman had come with her children to Italy. Some of them were divorced with adult children, and most had completed secondary school education. Most of the younger people had no labour experience prior to coming to Italy, whereas many of the older immigrants migrated because they had become unemployed in Poland. Most interviewees came from small towns (e.g., Starachowice, Brzesko, Stupsk) that have suffered most from the socio-economic transition in the past decade. Their length of stay in Italy ranges from five months to 10 years, which generally includes periods spent back in Poland. Many of them had previously worked as nurses, foremen, or waiters, but in Italy the majority work as housekeepers (N=12). We have selected these interviewees from the larger sample with a view to ensuring a variety of experiences. Two informants are men and two are women; two are middle aged and two are younger people; two are married and two are single. They have come to Italy through similar migration paths but have each had their own individual experiences and opinions which they report very vividly in these transcripts.