" In 1997, an enquiry was conducted into the local system of textile and clothing manufacture in San Guiseppe Vesuviano and the surrounding area. Many questions were asked about the basis of this and other work in the light industries of the Italian South. Academics, journalists, trades unionists, and those in local and central government now understand the importance of the area: this is one of the most significant outcomes of the research enquiry.1 This article does not aim to raise the issues again, but rather to investigate the local perspective. We need therefore to emphasise one particular characteristic of the system of production; it is the only one of which we know in the South of Italy which employs a community of 3,000 Chinese people. Women's work, domestic work, illegal work, immigrant work, double jobbing. In describing the reality of the labour market in textiles and clothing manufacture in San Guiseppe Vesuviano, we have to talk about the presence of the 3,000 members of the Chinese community, the obvious evidence of local workplace tensions and of the capacity to attract immigrant labour."

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