Transnationalism and Financial Crisis: The Hampered Migration Projects of Female Domestic Workers in Spain

Zenia Hellgren,Inma Serrano

doi:10.3390/socsci6010008

Abstract

The importance of transnational migration projects for international development has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. Migrants who move from the Global South or East to work in low-wage sectors such as construction, agriculture or domestic services in wealthier countries may contribute both to growth in the receiving countries and socio-economic development in their countries of origin. Parallel to scholarship on migration and development, research on the transnationalization of domestic work generally assumes that growing care needs and increasing demand for private household services in Western societies imply a continuing demand for migrant labour. However, since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, unemployment among migrant workers has increased dramatically in many immigrant-receiving countries, Spain being among the most severely affected. Job destruction has so far been lower in the domestic sector than in other sectors occupying large numbers of migrant workers. Yet, we find that migrant domestic workers in Spain are affected by the recession both in terms of unemployment or underemployment and deteriorating job conditions, with transnational consequences such as loss of remittances. Many migrants find themselves in a situation of “standby,” trying to subsist while waiting for the recession to end.

Highlights

Over the past decades, a growing body of research has engaged with the transnationalization of private domestic/care work, and the role of migrant workers who “fill the care gap” in aging European societies (e.g., [1,2])
Based on qualitative fieldwork performed within four different international research projects, this paper examines the consequences of the financial crisis in Spain for the present and future prospects of female migrant domestic workers
The empirical section of this paper is structured in order to address each of our three assumptions on how the financial crisis in Spain affects the life situation of migrant domestic workers

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of research has engaged with the transnationalization of private domestic/care work, and the role of migrant workers who “fill the care gap” in aging European societies (e.g., [1,2]). These works generally assume that growing care needs imply a continuing demand for migrant labour. 2017, 6, 8 for (largely female) migrant workers in the domestic private sector is still absent within the emerging literature on the effects of the crisis for migrant workers in general (e.g., [10,11]) Sci. 2017, 6, 8 for (largely female) migrant workers in the domestic private sector is still absent within the emerging literature on the effects of the crisis for migrant workers in general (e.g., [10,11])

Objectives

Results

Conclusion