License to Care? Migrant Domestic Workers in Spanish Employment and Family Policy

Abstract

Migrant women have come to play an important role as care and domestic workers in private households in Europe. The insertion of migrant women in domestic service often bridges the gap between the need for care and the lack of public or subsidized private services. The globalization of care is particularly significant in southern European contexts where public care provision is scarce and cheap migrant labor is being demanded by average- and high-income households aspiring to combine employment and family life. Activists and researchers have advocated for domestic workers’ labor rights and the recognition of domestic and care work as real work. They have been more silent on the right to family life of domestic workers — the right to combine paid work and care for their families. Based on a case study of Spain, this chapter analyzes the framing of domestic work and workers in domestic employment and family policies. It aims to explore these questions: How do Spanish employment and family policies frame domestic workers? In what ways do these policies (re)produce inequalities related to gender, class and migrant background?