The Moral Economy of Domestic and Care Labour: Migrant Workers in Naples, Italy

Abstract

This article proposes the notion of moral economy as a useful lens for the analysis of migrant domestic and care work. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Naples, Southern Italy, it argues that paid domestic and care work relationships are based on a moral economy, i.e. on notions of good/bad, just/unjust rather than merely economic profit maximization. There is a tendency to transform labour relationships into family-like relationships due to the locus of domestic work within the privacy of households and the nature of domestic labour relationships as highly personalized. However, in contrast to the existing research literature, many migrant workers feel that being treated like part of the family characterizes the best possible work relationship.