Keywords
Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre Migraciones, trabajadores domésticos migrantes, crisis financiera, subempleo, condiciones laborales, migrant domestic workers, financial crisis, underemployment, job conditions
Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain: Employment Opportunities and Conditions during the Great Recession
Abstract
Este artículo explora el impacto de la Gran Recesión en las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes en España. Argumentamos que la relativa resistencia del sector del servicio doméstico a la destrucción de empleo lo ha transformado en cierta medida en una actividad refugio para mujeres desempleadas de otros sectores, tanto migrantes como trabajadoras nativas españolas. Esto conduce a la intensificación de la competencia por los puestos de trabajo y al aumento de la estratificación entre las trabajadoras domésticas, con graves consecuencias tanto para las oportunidades de las mujeres migrantes de ganarse la vida en España como para sus proyectos migratorios a nivel internacional. Sobre la base de 90 entrevistas en profundidad con trabajadoras domésticas migrantes y partes interesadas, descubrimos que este grupo de trabajadoras se ha visto gravemente afectado por el desempleo, el subempleo y el empeoramiento de las condiciones laborales. Como consecuencia, los migrantes nuevos y los ya establecidos ven reducidas sustancialmente las posibilidades de ganarse la vida en España, y muchos de los que emigraron para mantener a la familia en su país de origen a través de las remesas, o para ahorrar algo de dinero y eventualmente regresar, no pueden hacerlo en la actualidad.
This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector’s relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both for migrant women’s opportunities to make a living in Spain and for their migration projects at an international level. Based on 90 in-depth interviews with female migrant domestic workers and stakeholders, we find that this group of workers has been seriously affected by unemployment, underemployment, and worsened job conditions. As a consequence, new and already settled migrants find the chances to gain their livelihood in Spain substantially reduced, and many of those who migrated in order to support the family back home through remittances, or to save some money and eventually return, are at present unable to do so.
This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector’s relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both for migrant women’s opportunities to make a living in Spain and for their migration projects at an international level. Based on 90 in-depth interviews with female migrant domestic workers and stakeholders, we find that this group of workers has been seriously affected by unemployment, underemployment, and worsened job conditions. As a consequence, new and already settled migrants find the chances to gain their livelihood in Spain substantially reduced, and many of those who migrated in order to support the family back home through remittances, or to save some money and eventually return, are at present unable to do so.
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