Précarité et déclassement des migrantes diplômées non européennes : menace sur leur projet d’émancipation

Abstract

This article analyzes the position of women migrants of non-European origin in a few job markets in the European Union (EU). It focuses particularly on the situation of migrants with a graduate diploma. In light of the challenges facing women migrants who have to market their diploma or find a job, the author questions the actual aim of the EU call to get more qualified immigrants. She argues that setting up the competition between higher education graduates is akin to the competition that was created in the early post-war period between unqualified workers, which was aimed at bypassing the labour market and making the workforce more flexible. Today, the plethora of qualified workers leads to an inflationary pressure on the diploma and a resulting depreciation of salary. The significant downgrading and unemployment that results has affected specifically non-European women migrants and risk jeopardizing the social integration and the emancipation process that is at the centre of their goals of migration and higher education.