Managing African Portugal

The Citizen-Migrant Distinction

Nonfiction, History, Spain & Portugal, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&, Anthropology
Cover of the book Managing African Portugal by Kesha Fikes, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kesha Fikes ISBN: 9780822390985
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: November 17, 2009
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Kesha Fikes
ISBN: 9780822390985
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: November 17, 2009
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Managing African Portugal, Kesha Fikes shows how the final integration of Portugal’s economic institutions into the European Union (EU) in the late 1990s changed everyday encounters between African migrants and Portuguese citizens. This economic transition is examined through transformations in ideologies of difference enacted in workspaces in Lisbon between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s. Fikes evaluates shifts in racial discourse and considers how both antiracism and racism instantiate proof of Portugal’s European “conversion” and modernization.

The ethnographic focus is a former undocumented fish market that at one time employed both Portuguese and Cape Verdean women. Both groups eventually sought work in low-wage professions as maids, nannies, and restaurant-kitchen help. The visibility of poor Portuguese women as domestics was thought to undermine the appearance of Portuguese modernity; by contrast, the association of poor African women with domestic work confirmed it. Fikes argues that we can better understand how Portugal interpreted its economic absorption into the EU by attending to the different directions in which working-poor Portuguese and Cape Verdean women were routed in the mid-1990s and by observing the character of the new work relationships that developed among them. In Managing African Portugal, Fikes pushes for a study of migrant phenomena that considers not only how the enactment of citizenship by the citizen manages the migrant, but also how citizens are simultaneously governed through their uptake and assumption of new EU citizen roles.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Managing African Portugal, Kesha Fikes shows how the final integration of Portugal’s economic institutions into the European Union (EU) in the late 1990s changed everyday encounters between African migrants and Portuguese citizens. This economic transition is examined through transformations in ideologies of difference enacted in workspaces in Lisbon between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s. Fikes evaluates shifts in racial discourse and considers how both antiracism and racism instantiate proof of Portugal’s European “conversion” and modernization.

The ethnographic focus is a former undocumented fish market that at one time employed both Portuguese and Cape Verdean women. Both groups eventually sought work in low-wage professions as maids, nannies, and restaurant-kitchen help. The visibility of poor Portuguese women as domestics was thought to undermine the appearance of Portuguese modernity; by contrast, the association of poor African women with domestic work confirmed it. Fikes argues that we can better understand how Portugal interpreted its economic absorption into the EU by attending to the different directions in which working-poor Portuguese and Cape Verdean women were routed in the mid-1990s and by observing the character of the new work relationships that developed among them. In Managing African Portugal, Fikes pushes for a study of migrant phenomena that considers not only how the enactment of citizenship by the citizen manages the migrant, but also how citizens are simultaneously governed through their uptake and assumption of new EU citizen roles.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Moral Spectatorship by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Gay Fandom and Crossover Stardom by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Politics on the Fringe by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book The Deliverance of Others by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Who Killed John Clayton? by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book American Empire and the Politics of Meaning by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Cinema of Actuality by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book National Past-Times by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Religion and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Mexico by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Looking Past the Screen by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Left of Karl Marx by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Living with Florida’s Atlantic Beaches by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book Figures of Resistance by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book The Plebeian Republic by Kesha Fikes
Cover of the book The Bangladesh Reader by Kesha Fikes
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy