Gender, migration and labour market: the transnational redistribution of domestic work in Spain and the limits for social integration

Authors

  • Paloma More Department of Sociology III. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Complutense University of Madrid

Keywords:

migration, gender, domestic work.

Abstract

This article analyses the complex interrelation between the discriminatory situation of women in the labour market, the increasing demand for domestic work for households, and the integration process of migrant women in Spain. In relative terms, Spain is one of the European countries with the highest percentage of domestic workers and the rise in the demand for household services in the last decade has been stimulated in part by the migration policies. The profile of workers is characterised by highly feminised rates, which are over
90%, as well as by the rise of foreign workers, who represent almost 60% of the declared domestic workers. Moreover, this sector is characterised by traditional and servility-related features like tolerance of undeclared work, a high proportion of live-in domestic workers and the absence of written contracts. In addition, domestic workers’ rights and basic welfare benefits are inferior to those of other categories of wage-earning workers. This study explores the way in which the structural patterns of the labour market in Spain have an impact on migrant women’s economic integration.

Keywords: migration, gender, domestic work.

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Author Biography

Paloma More, Department of Sociology III. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Complutense University of Madrid

Doctoranda e Investigadora Predoctoral en Formación del programa FPI de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Realiza su tesis doctoral en el Departamento de Sociología III de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología de la UCM y es miembro del Grupo de Investigación Consolidado UCM Charles Babbage en Ciencias Sociales del Trabajo. 

 

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Published

2014-01-13