An Alliance of Women ― Immigration And the Politics of Race

As they immigrated to Italy, what the people of Africa, South and Central America, Asia and Eastern Europe called themselves changed, just as where they placed themselves in culture. In the decade between 1990 and 2001 Italy itself changed from a nation which supplied emigrants to a nation which accepted immigrants. Add to this change the unchanging nature of local and regional identities and cultures, and the result for Italy has been explosive. Here Merrill (geography and anthropology, Dickenson College) takes on a particular facet of the tensions between stasis and change in this ethnological study of the agency of migrants and the struggle of cultures and identities. She describes interethnic politics as they formed at the grassroots level, and the creation of Alma Mater, a peacemaking organization working to resolve interethnic issues of migrant women. The result is a rigorous examination rich in the narrative of migrant women. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)