Female Labour Segregation in the Domestic Services in Italy

Abstract

Third-country immigrants are over-represented among lower status workers in all EU countries and rarely achieve upward mobility. The present paper aims to analyse the migration trajectories of foreign-born women who entered the Italian labour market as domestic workers, in order to assess the role of personal and group characteristics in determining the chances of leaving this sector. The data were collected as part of a project studying the working trajectories of migrants in Italy. The survey was conducted during 2009 on 13,000 migrants aged 18 and over, living in Italy at the time of the interview and born in high emigration countries. We used a piecewise exponential model with random intercept for citizenship with time measured from the beginning of the person’s first domestic work in Italy. Our results show low exit rates from the domestic sector but we identify personal and group characteristics which facilitate exit from this segment of the labour market. Employment experience, including unskilled, has a positive effect on the transition in the host country, as do education achieved in the country of origin and higher levels of tasks and duties in the last job held in the country of origin, whereas ethnic networks limit access to other occupations. The aims of the women’s migration project include a strong emphasis on occupational mobility, whether they migrate for work or for family reasons. Finally, we find evidence of the existence of a “U-shaped” pattern in occupational mobility for this particular subpopulation of workers.