Deconstructing Essentialism

This book proposes an original approach to analyse the trajectories of migrant women with tertiary education and their access to jobs. It focuses on the role of essentialism in stratifying labour markets based on gender, class and racialisation, and in limiting migrant women's employment opportunities. Indeed, although holding tertiary education should facilitate access to rewarding positions, returns on education for migrant women are reduced within European labour markets. Based on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in France and Italy, the book highlights how essentialism influences the assessment of working capacities, stressing that skills are socially constructed and valued depending on who embodies them. It also emphasises that migrant women and labour market gatekeepers are not only passively accepting essentialism, but they also resist and eventually challenge this process. Deconstructing essentialism permits us to better understand the mechanisms that reproduce stratifications and aids in designing paths towards more equal access to employment.