Celebrating invisibility: Live-in Romanian badanti caring for the elderly in southeast Italy - Gabriela Nicoelscu

The protagonist of this story is Ana (a pseudonym), a Romanian domestic careworker, aged 45. Ana came to work in Italy in 2005 when she was 36 years old. She had no children of her own, but had a niece, whose university education she supported financially. When the niece finished university, and found employment, Ana would divide all the money that she gained every month (€600/month) in two. She would give half of the money to her partner to finish building their house in Romania, and she would keep half for her own expenses in Italy: clothes, food, tablets, monthly internet and telephone passes, cigarettes, and alcohol. In the 11 years she had worked in Italy, Ana also contributed to the renovation of her parents’ house, in a village in eastern Romania. This piece of writing describes in detail the party we organised in Grano in July 2014, at Ana’s request. The material presented comes mainly from this event but is also based on my previous research, between July 2013 and August 2014, on migrant care work with the elderly in the region and the limited amount of time live-in migrant care workers have. In this case, changing the field of interest from the house to a public venue of encounter, from care to the curation of a party, allowed a very powerful shifting of contexts that facilitates understanding.Article by Gabriela Nicoelscu, illustrated by Oana Hajos, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andreihttps://theanthro.art/celebrating-invisibility-live-in-romanian-badanti-caring-for-the-elderly-in-southeast-italy-gabriela-nicolescu/