Indispensable yet underappreciated: the need for foreign domestic workers in an ageing Italy 

In 1994, Giovanna Vicarelli published a book entitled “Le mani invisibili. La vita e il lavoro delle donne immigrate”. The book is one of the first works in Italy to address the issue of female migration and women’s work. It highlights issues that were already crucial at the time, such as the social value of unrecognised – indeed, invisible – work, and the intersection between gender and international mobility. Italy, unlike other immigration destinations, has been characterised, right from the earliest arrivals, by migration flows with a clear female majority.