Bodies at Work, Work on Bodies: Migrant Bodies, Wage Labour, and Family Reunification in Italy

Abstract

The article focuses on the experience of the family reunification process through which Bangladeshi migrant men bring their wives and children to Italy, analysing the links between this experience and the everyday lives and bodies of the applicants, which are shaped by their work as wage labourers. From a collection of in-depth interviews among 30 middle to upper middle-class Bangladeshi migrant men, the article explores the meanings assumed by work before and after family reunification and the impact this has on the disciplining of migrant bodies and the organization of the everyday life of applicant migrant men, the manner in which their bodies are put to work and the impact this has on their health and the symbolic meanings of entrance into industrial factory work in Italy.