Sex, care and the working body: ambiguities of the gendered racialisation as 'Eastern European'.
The concept 'cultural racism' is influential in scholarship on East–West mobilities in Europe. Balibar coined this term by observing that an essentialisation of 'cultural difference' has replaced the 'biologist focus' of historical racism. A neat separation between the role of 'biology' in history a...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 41 - 65 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jan2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190647796&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190647796 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 1369183X 56F jtl: Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies issn: 1369183X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2026 vid: 52 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 190647796 10.1080/1369183X.2025.2462779 ppf: 41 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 509KB tig: atl: Sex, care and the working body: ambiguities of the gendered racialisation as 'Eastern European'. aug: au: Lewicki, Aleksandra Probst, Ursula affil: Aleksandra Lewicki, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom Ursula Probst, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany su: Elder care Sex work Europeans Race identity Racism Unpaid labor Germany Eastern Europe Europe sug: subj: Germany Eastern Europe Europe Elder care Sex work Europeans Race identity Racism Unpaid labor keyword: East–West Inequalities gender political economy of social reproduction precarious labour racialisation ab: The concept 'cultural racism' is influential in scholarship on East–West mobilities in Europe. Balibar coined this term by observing that an essentialisation of 'cultural difference' has replaced the 'biologist focus' of historical racism. A neat separation between the role of 'biology' in history and of 'culture' in the present, however, insufficiently grasps how both feature within repertoires of racialisation. Here, we examine this for the racialisation as 'Eastern European' in Germany – including by looking at its histories, contemporary trajectories and material effects. Drawing on qualitative research, we trace how 'Eastern Europeanness' is produced in two employment sites – elder care and sex work – in which women from Europe's East often work. We find that shifting attributions of bodily and valued-based difference or proximity are mobilised in imaginaries of 'Eastern Europeans' in these sectors. These ambiguities constitute a key continuity in the gendered racialisation as 'Eastern European', which sustains the extraction of cheap social reproductive labour over generations. This racialisation also has material effects: working in these professions takes a toll on the worker's physical and mental health. On this basis, we propose a research agenda that thinks racialisation not only from its dichotomies but also from its ambiguities. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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