This project examines an understudied field of nail salons in Europe, an employment sector that is run by migrant women. The global nail salon industry has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by increasing consumer demand for self-care and the expansion of the service sector. This market is mainly composed of small businesses owned and staffed by migrant women, primarily from Eastern Europe (e.g. Ukraine, Belarus, Russia) and Southeast Asia (e.g. Thailand and Vietnam). The project combines participant observations and interviews with workers and customers of nail salons in Helsinki and Warsaw, with video, text, and still images to analyse intimate relations that are being made and unmade among women through touch, beauty and (self-)care. The project's findings will inform policy and civil society responses to the inequalities faced by migrant women and the conditions of work in one of the poorly regulated sectors of labour.

2025

2029