L’operazione «Balt Cygnet». Il governo inglese e le profughe europee nel secondo dopoguerra

Operatıon «Balt Cygnet». British government and European female refugees in the postwar period
In the aftermath of the Second World War Europe comprised millions of people who had been forced to leave their home countries. It was the most serious refugee crisis in western history. In this period the figure of the refugee is established as a specific social category recognized by the international community. This category is allegedly universal, but hides a deep gender asymmetry. This asymmetry is here analysed in a specific occurrence, the programme (named «Balt Cygnet») that established the employment as janitors in British sanatoriums of women who had fled Baltic countries. This programme became in fact a sort of laboratory that defined the meaning of social and political resettlement – a process of integration deeply marked by gender differences.