Crossing boundaries: Racialised gendering and the labour market experiences of Pakistani migrant women in Britain

In this paper we discuss an interview-based study of the experiences of 27 first-generation Pakistani Muslim women in Britain who were looking for or undertaking paid work in the town of Reading. We explore the ways in which doing paid work enmeshes with the constitution of their gendered, racialise d, and classed identities. These identities, we argue, are best understood in the context of an analysis that recognises the continuing importance of their relationship to a wider diasporic Pakistani/South Asian Islamic cultu re. We conclude that the place of paid work in the life of a "British Pakis tani Muslim woman" is a contested area in which there are a number of compe ting ideas about appropriate work which are strongly related to the class p osition and lifestage of the women. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.