ABSTRACT
The previous chapter addressed the situation of African women in Rome at a time when immigration had yet to acquire social and political visibility at the national level. In the 1970s, both an unofficiallaissez-faire approach and a particular construction of migrant women's roles contained in government circulars could be identified. Both constructions gave weight to migrant women's labour function. The 1980s provided an opportunity to challenge this construction and to facilitate the establishment of a model for migrant women which would not simply approximate existing national gender models but which could accommodate the specificity of Black female migrants' interlocking social identities.
