UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Exile vs. Exodus: Nationalism and Gendered Migration from Ukraine to Italy and California Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zc4v198 Author Solari, Cinzia Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Exile vs. Exodus: Nationalism and Gendered Migration from Ukraine to Italy and California By Cinzia Debra Solari A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Sociology in the Graduate Division Of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Michael Burawoy, Chair Irene Bloemraad Victoria Bonnell Raka Ray Yuri Slezkine Fall 2010 Abstract Exile vs. Exodus: Nationalism and Gendered Migration from Ukraine to Italy and California by Cinzia Debra Solari Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Berkeley Professor Michael Burawoy, Chair The post-soviet economic transformation and the rise of a new Ukrainian nationalism are interconnected gendered processes producing both a new structural reality which has decreased the employment opportunities for women in Ukraine and a new discursive terrain including a contested moral order and a reification of mothers as the symbol of a still fragile Ukrainian national identity. It is in this context that Post- Soviet Ukraine has become the site of mass emigration. This dissertation is a cross-national comparison of two patterns of Ukrainian emigration: the exile of older women to Italy and the exodus of entire families, lead predominantly by older women, to California. Italy and California are the largest and most politically significant destinations for post-Soviet Ukrainian migrants where they provide cleaning and caring labor to the elderly. The sending site, Ukraine, as well as key characteristics of the migrants are held constant. Therefore the migration literature argues that variation between the discourses and practices of migrants in Rome and San Francisco must be due to the “context of reception.” However, by following these migration streams back to Ukraine, I discovered that while variations in the contexts of reception are important, the sending site also has significant effects. In fact, I show that there is a classic “interaction effect” between sending and receiving sites constructing different subjectivities and practices for those in exile to Italy and those in exodus to California. Individual migrants in exile maintain a forced and painful connection to Ukraine, not only through their families left behind, but to Ukraine’s future position in the global hierarchy of nations. In contrast, families in exodus, are able to choose the extent to which they are engaged with Ukrainian nation-building. If carework is a sit of Ukraine’s Europeanization project in exile, it is instead a vehicle for integration in exodus. In addition to 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this study also relies on 158 interviews conducted in Russian with migrant careworkers in Rome and San Francisco and with family members left behind in L’viv, Ukraine. Through this comparative approach I elaborate on the theoretical debates about gender and migration and bring together empirical work on sending and receiving countries while drawing connections to national and global level processes. 1 To my husband, Davide Cis, who loves me not despite but because I want to be a sociologist. i Contents 1. Exile vs. Exodus: Migrant Ukrainian Workers in Rome and San Francisco 1 2. Genesis: Markets, Moralities, and Motherhood in Transition 15 PART I: EXILE 3. Italy’s Context of Reception and Connections to Ukraine 40 4. Olena: Building the New Ukraine 56 5. Tatiana: Working in Exile 65 6. Oksana: Talent Shows from the Gulag 75 7. Yuriy: Papa is Papa 85 8. Lydmyla: A Family in Exile 94 9. From Exile to Exodus 103 Part II: EXODUS 10. California’s Context of Reception and State-based Integration 106 11. Viktoria: Turnips and Triumphs in Exodus 117 12. Dariya: Discovering my “I” in Exodus 125 13. Kateryna: Talent Shows from the Promised Land 135 14. Zhanna: Reinventing Babushka across Migration Waves 143 15. Halyna: Undocumented in Exodus 152 CONCLUSION 16. Exile and Exodus: Transposable Concepts 157 Bibliography 175 ii Acknowledgements Above all I thank my dissertation chair, Michael Burawoy, for his unwavering dedication to this project. There were many times I walked out his office realizing that I would have to re-write everything, but never once did I leave believing the project was not worth me doing so. That is perhaps Michael’s greatest of many gifts to his students and one that I attempt to replicate in the mentoring relationships I have with my own students. I must also thank my hardworking and insightful dissertation committee: Irene Bloemraad, Raka Ray, Vicki Bonnell, and Yuri Slezkine. I also thank Ned Walker at the Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies (BPS) for offering his perspective on my work over the years. iii 1 Exile vs. Exodus: Migrant Ukrainian Domestic Workers in Rome and San Francisco On a Sunday morning in November 2004, I took Rome’s metro from St. Peter’s Square and rode 40 minutes outside Rome’s city center to the Garbatella metro stop. Among Ukrainian migrants in Rome, “the Garbatella” also refers to a large parking lot behind the station where every Sunday, 50 Soviet era courier vans arrive from all over Ukraine filled with photographs, letters, and Ukrainian products sent from family members in Ukraine to those working in Italy. Over 5,000 Ukrainians visit the Garbatella every Sunday. This morning I am with Tanya, 1 an energetic woman in her 50s. As Tanya and I exit the metro, we pause on a platform that overlooks the Garbatella. Looking out over the crowd, it is immediately obvious that those below are almost all women. Even more interesting, while most migrant populations tend to be in their 20s or 30s, these women are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, many of them grandmothers. Most of the women were teachers, accountants, or engineers in Ukraine. Tanya sighed and turning to me she said in Russian, “Do you see all those women down there? They carry Ukraine on their shoulders and don’t think they don’t know it…and don’t think they are happy about it either.” 2 Down at the Garbatella I walk among the throngs of people. Most Sundays women share with me photographs of cars, computers, or fashionable clothes bought with the remittances they send back to their families. These photographs are often cited as proof that Ukraine is “Europe” and that they too are part of Ukraine’s national project of joining Europe. Ethnographic experiences such as these continued to highlight a particular intersection between gender, migration, and Ukraine in the context of post- Soviet transformation. A deep and even tortured relationship to Ukraine emerged from my interviews with Ukrainian domestic workers providing care to the elderly in Italy. Discussions about the kind of life their migration made possible for their children and grandchildren back in Ukraine and the kind of nation the “new” Ukraine would become dominated Ukrainian spaces in Rome. In San Francisco, there were few instances when recent Ukrainian immigrants gathered in large groups. Unlike in Rome where the Ukrainian churches were packed to overflowing and promoting unabashedly a “Ukraine for Ukrainians” message, Ukrainian churches in San Francisco were sparsely attended with one frustrated priest declaring that his congregation was not even made of “real” Ukrainians who left due to Soviet discrimination against ethnic Ukrainians or as religious refugees which is seen as tied to Ukrainian culture. Rather he called them “economic immigrants” which is a derogatory term in this context. The most regular organized gatherings were homecare worker union 1 All names are pseudonyms. 2 Exchanges that occurred in the field where translated by myself and written down directly in English in a notebook I carried with me in the field. I then typed these notes up at the first opportunity so that ethnographic experiences were fresh in my mind when recorded. Interviews were transcribed and typed up in Cyrillic by a native Russian-speaker. Therefore I am responsible for the English translations of interview data as well. 1 meetings run by, Svitlana, a Ukrainian organizer which drew recent immigrants from Ukraine but also other former Soviet countries. Informal conversations often revolved around children’s schooling and careers and their children’s romantic life with many concerned about sons and especially daughters waiting “too long” to marry “like Americans.” These women wondered if they would ever become babushki or grandmothers while they had the energy and health to be actively involved in raising their grandchildren. On this day Viktoria gave a presentation in Russian on how to vote in the upcoming election for city supervisor. Viktoria, formerly a Russian language and literature teacher, is 58 and works as a homecare worker. She also works for the voter registration office during election cycles. As she started to walk her coworkers through a sample ballot, people began chatting. Yuliana, a large, animated woman with a blonde beehive hairdo said with a sparkle in her eye, “Ladies, ladies –oh excuse me and gentlemen,” she said winking at the two men in attendance. “Quiet! This is important. We are government workers for the United States of America and so we must learn how to vote.” Viktoria continued, “Yes, Yuliana is right. We are American citizens now and it is our duty to vote.” Galina piped up in an exaggeratedly whiny voice, “But Vika, 3 how do we know who to vote for? They all seem the same.” Heads nodded and people laughed. “I cannot tell you who to vote for, this is America.