Da profughe a cittadine? Percorsi del resettlement nell'Europa del secondo dopoguerra

The end of the Second World War left in Europe millions of people who had been forced to leave their home countries. It was the most serious refugee crisis in western history. In the post-war years, refugees became a specific social category recognized by the international community. This category was allegedly universal, but hid a deep gender asymmetry. The essay analyses that asymmetry in a specific occurrence, the programme (named «Balt Cygnet») which arranged the employment of women who had fled Baltic countries as janitors in British sanatoriums. This programme became in fact a sort of laboratory test that defined the meaning of social and political resettlement – a process of integration deeply marked by gender differences.