The collective volume brings together theoretical analyses and empirical investigations of certain aspects of the daily lives of migrant women (who are primarily paid domestic workers) as well as the gender dimension of public policies and political discourse on migration.

The nearly exclusive focus on 'domestic labor' is linked to its central position in the analysis of modern welfare regimes on the one hand and modern gender relations on the other. Challenging the boundaries between the labor market, family, and state, as well as private and public space, the organization of domestic work and care is directly intertwined with gender divisions, the organization of space and time, the quality of social services, urban formation, and public interventions in the fields of employment and social protection, among others.

A common element in the analyses presented here consists of two components of the concept of 'gender' that are in a dialectical relationship with each other. One refers to gender as a social hierarchical relationship that permeates and shapes all aspects of social phenomena. The second refers to 'women and men' as active subjects rather than passive recipients of external circumstances.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]