Cleaning-up the Brazilian immigrant's identity

Abstract

Brazil has always been known for the fact of receiving immigrants from all over the world. However, since the last three decades, this A dynamic has inverted and workers have been searching for new opportunities of labor and income in first world countries. Among the kinds of work done by immigrants, in general subqualified, poorly paid and informal, housecleaning is one of the occupations chosen by Brazilian Women. An ethnography with 42 Brazilian women working as cleaners in Boston, USA, bases this article. These Women have been cleaning American homes for years and, little by little, have structured solid and profitable businesses. These women‘ are conscious of their own work, its influence the ways they build themselves as immigrants and Brazilians. In the bowed/eaning scenario, Contact with Americans, with other immigrants and with the Brazilian community enriches this process. The article analyses the construction of Brazilian social identity of this group from its professional niche.