The Feminization of European Union Migration

THE FEMINIZATION OF EUROPEAN UNION MIGRATION

ALEXANDRA BRABSONUNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

PRESENTAED AT THE EUROPEAN UNION CONFERENCE SANTA CLARA 2013

THE FEMINIZATION OF E.U. MIGRATION

Feminization of European Migration

After World War II there was large demand for labor

from foreign nationals to help rebuild Europe due to the

massive amount of damage suffered throughout the war. The

labor that was required was that of unskilled men willing to

do physical labor (Hanson, 2011). This trend has changed in

recent years where large amounts of women have begun

migrating to the European Union due to a different demand.

Out of the 200 million migrants entering the European Union

in 2010, forty-nine percent were women (European Union

Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2011). These women have been

largely “pushed” to migrate to the European Union due to

poverty and lack of work in their home countries, while also

being “pulled” into the European Union due to high demands

for domestic care (European Union Agency for Fundamental

Rights, 2011).

Domestic care has been defined by the European Union

Agency for Fundamental rights as one, “doing housekeeping

and caring for dependents, such as children, older persons

and persons with disabilities.” It is simply a fact that

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historically and even to this day domestic work has been

thought of as “women’s work” and is further embodied by

statistics that show the immense number of women migrating

on their own to pursue careers in the domestic field;

approximately 100 million in 2010 alone (European Union

Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2011). While there are still

women that migrate with their husbands, the amount of women

leaving their families behind in pursuit of employment in

the European Union is dramatically increasing. Also worthy

of mention is that women accompanying their migrant husbands

are usually granted the right to live in the European Union

but not work and also make up a portion of the domestic

labor field, but the main focus of many researchers is not

on this demographic as they are better protected by European

labor laws (Al-Ali, 2002).

Pull factors of migration into the European Union for

women are related to the care deficit facing the European

Union. European women have begun to work more hours in more

professional settings. This has created the need for

domestic services so that children and households are cared

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for now that mothers and wives have entered the work force

(European Parliament, 2011). According to the European

Parliament (2011), even though women in the workforce of

Europe has increased from 54.9% in 2003 to 59.1% in 2008,

they are still responsible for, on average, 70% of domestic

chores on top of their paid work; this has come out to be an

average of thirty hours per week in addition to their paid

work. Furthermore, the European Parliament has also

concluded that the amount of domestic work done by men has

remained the same and, that is to say, relatively low

(European Parliament, 2011). It is also important to mention

that the increase of age in the population has created a

demand for domestic workers to care for the sick and elderly

(European Parliament, 2011).

Another pull factor has been the recent cuts in welfare

services across Europe (European Parliament, 2011). States

that once offered child care centers and incentives for

having and caring for children have had to cut these

benefits due the economic crisis starting in 2008 (United

Nations, 2010). As a response, European Union member states

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have taken on an idea developed in Sweden, which offers tax

incentives for employers hiring domestic work (United

Nations, 2010). For example, in France 50% of expenditures

on domestic labor can be recouped in the form of a tax

credit (Eurofound, 2009). Currently the United Kingdom is

considering the possibility of also extending this same type

of tax credit to its citizens (Ross, 2012). However, this

incentive also serves as more than a pull factor for migrant

women, it also is a way for European states to keep track of

the domestic labor market which has been difficult to

monitor and therefore difficult to regularize and protect

domestic workers (European Union Agency for Fundamental

Rights, 2011).

Issues Faced by Migrant Women

Since most domestic migrants are women they are exposed

to forms of discrimination that are gender as well as

migrant specific. Unfortunately, gender based forms of

discrimination are fairly common in the domestic work field

and have resulted in reports of violence, sexual assault,

emotional abuse, and being taken advantage of financially

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(Pyle, 2006). For example according the European Union

Agency for Fundamental Rights (2011), migrant women that

have been interviewed have been subjected to sexual assault

by employers, have been physically and emotionally abused,

and have also been subjected to discrimination based on

their race. However, some women use racial discrimination to

their advantage. For example, Filipinos are stereotyped as

the “Mercedes-Benzes” of domestic workers and are therefore

the most sought after while Ukrainian women are also thought

to be “better” than other races (European Union Agency for

Fundamental Rights, 2011).

Further problems arising from gender discrimination are

largely financial where “women’s work” has been seen as less

valuable than other forms of labor and is inherently low

paying. This has been thought to be the result of this type

of work being done for free for many years by mothers and

wives and so the sentiment has been carried forward (Pyle,

2006). The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

(2011) reports of many migrant women working over 12 hours a

day, with no days off, for as little as 500 Euros, or less,

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per month. A large issue facing the European Union is how

to protect undocumented migrant women from these abuses

(Pyle, 2006). While the European Union as a whole, and most

individual member states, have laws protecting both

documented and undocumented workers while also providing

labor standards, because of the nature of domestic work it

is difficult to monitor (United Nations, 2010).

The reason why it is so difficult to monitor is because

at its core, domestic work is labor is performed in private

homes that are not open for inspection by labor boards. Many

migrants also fear deportation if they seek help or report

abuses by their employers and, since much of the work is

paid for in cash with verbal contracts, it is difficult to

provide enough evidence to show that the accused employers

are actually even employers. This fear is further

exacerbated since many women do not know their rights in the

states that they have come to and many women do not have

enough free time to become integrated beyond the family that

they are working for (European Union Agency for Fundamental

Rights, 2011).

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Also, many migrant women become very attached to the

families that they work for because of the intimate nature

of the work and either refuse to request better conditions

for fear of being fired, will not report abuses, or will not

leave even if conditions are unacceptable (United Nations,

2010). While some domestic workers live out of the house and

come daily, many migrant workers actually live with the

families that they work for (European Union Agency for

Fundamental Rights, 2011). Incidentally, the worst cases of

abuse have occurred with domestic workers that reside with

the families that they work for (European Union Agency for

Fundamental Rights, 2011).

Some countries of origin have responded to the gross

human rights violations being committed against domestic

workers through trying to establish bilateral treaties with

destination countries. For example, in 1997 the Philippines

put a ban on domestic migration to Europe because of the

exceptionally bad conditions that had been reported by young

Filipino women (European Union Agency for Fundamental

Rights, 2011). There was a mixed response among European

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Nations, while some states ignored the ban others responded

with bilateral treaties to ensure proper visas, information,

and care to be provided to Filipino domestic workers

(European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2011).

This kind of treaty is a good step in trying to monitor

the domestic labor industry and provide better labor

standards but regardless of this progress, many migrant

women still continue to come as undocumented workers (United

Nations, 2010). It is also important to mention that some

migrant women and non governmental organizations have

suggested that these types of treaties, while on the surface

seem to provide protection for domestic workers, are really

employment schemes to continue to provide cheap domestic

labor to relatively wealthy Europeans (European Parliament,

2011).

Demographics of Migrant Women

Currently there are four main migration blocs globally:

South-East Asia to the Middle East, the former Soviet Bloc

to Western Europe, South to North America, and Africa to

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Europe. While it is true that much of the domestic labor in

Western Europe is made up of laborers from the former Soviet

Bloc, statistics also show that there has been an increase

of migrant women coming from Asia and Latin America in

recent years; current studies have not included women

migrating from Africa in relation to domestic work (Libcom,

2008). The most common nationalities that have been

accounted for in domestic work recently are, “Ukrainian,

Romanian, Filipino, Polish, Ecuadorian and Peruvian,”

further emphasizing the migration from the former Soviet

bloc, Asia, and Latin America and migration from “east to

west” and “south to north” (Lutz, 2008).

While the nationalities of domestic women may differ,

many of these women share similar qualities in regards to

education, background, and family status (Lutz, 2008). Many

migrant women come from middle class families, have received

an education, and also have children of their own (Lutz,

2008). The average age of a migrant women pursuing domestic

work is 29 (Libcom, 2008). As mentioned previously, they are

pushed from their countries of origin to pursue menial

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labor, as they are unable to find employment in their fields

of education in their home countries. Furthermore, many

European employers expect their domestic workers to be

educated and easily able to adapt to their way of life

(Lutz, 2008). Another reason that has been speculated as to

why certain nationalities are preferred is because certain

nationalities share similar backgrounds and cultures with

Western Europeans and so they are more easily integrated

into the family; for example, women from the former Soviet

Bloc share more in common with Western Europeans culturally

than do Muslim Albanians (United Nations, 2010).

As previously stated, many of these women are mothers

themselves and so are assumed to be naturally better at

taking care of children and dependents than other

demographics which also creates a demand as far as live in

domestic workers caring for children and doing house work

(Lutz, 2008). However, this also leads to a particular

phenomenon that is involved with creating a deficit while

trying to gap another of the same sort. While the labor gap

of domestic work is being addressed in the European Union,

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the countries of origin for domestic laborers are suffering

from a shortage of care for their own children and

population.

The “Care Drain”

In relation to the “brain drain” that is very often

mentioned in migration there is also a serious “care drain”

that is caused by the demand for domestic labor and the need

for women from impoverished countries to migrate. As

mentioned earlier many of these women are educated women and

these women are also usually older, having completed school,

and with children of their own (Libcom, 2008). Migrant women

are usually unable to bring their children for economic or

legal reasons, especially those migrating illegally (Libcom,

2008). This results in women often leaving behind children

in the care of relatives such as aunts, uncles,

grandparents, and sometimes even older siblings (Lutz,

2008). In cases such as these it is usual that the people

left in charge of the children work themselves and have to

hire part time labor to watch the children they have been

placed in charge of:

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“There is a sort of economic chain reaction of the care

crisis. One example is this: Rowena works in the US ($750 a

month) and sends money back for her two children who live

with her mother ($400 a month). But her mother also works,

14 hours a day as a teacher. So Anna de la Cruz comes in at

8am to cook, clean and care for the children ($50 a month),

leaving her own teenage son in the care of her eighty-year-

old mother in law” (Libcom, 2008).

Research that has been conducted has shown that

children of migrant women often suffer from emotional and

psychological problems related to abandonment while migrant

mothers often suffer from feelings of guilt and loneliness

(Libcom, 2008). This has been shown to usually translate

into exceptional amounts of love and attention onto the

children that they care for in the wealthy European

countries they migrate to, which as mentioned before is one

of the major factors in the enforcement of labor standards

in the domestic field (European Union Agency for Fundamental

Rights, 2011). There is also a very sad truth that exists;

even if the migrant mothers remained in their countries of

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origin they still would not have the time to lavish the

amount of love and attention on their own children that they

are able to in caring for the children of others in the

first world (Libcom, 2008).

Remittances

Despite the lack of care that children of migrant women

often experience, in general it has been found that migrant

women send back on average 50% of what they earn to their

families (Libcom, 2008). Remittances make up a large

portion of developing countries GDPs which is why in a lot

of cases even though women are migrating to support their

families, governments are also encouraging migration as well

because it supports the national economy (European

Commission, 2006). For example, “34 to 54 percent of the

Filipino population is sustained by remittances” and they

receive approximately $11.6 billion dollars annually from

remittances alone (Libcom, 2008).

In addition, it has been reported that some governments

have employment schemes and even propaganda songs to

encourage migration. While this has been reported by several

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sources it has been a vague a reference. The most conclusive

employment schemes seem to be along the lines of

legalization of mail order brides, the bilateral treaties

mentioned previously, and also the emergence of corporation

that hire out mainly foreign domestic labor (Libcom, 2008).

The emergence of corporations has mitigated some problems of

abuse that are found with migrants working for private

employers such as becoming attached to families and simply

not being employed directly by owners of the household,

however it has not solved the problem of live female

migrants that care for children, illegal migrants, or

extremely low wages (Libcom, 2008).

Regularization of Migrant Women

The United Nations International Labor Organization has

estimated that there are 752,000 domestic workers in Spain

alone (United Nations, 2010). Other European Union member

states have lower numbers but it is difficult to get

estimates, again because of the aforementioned problems of

monitoring domestic work (United Nations, 2010). While

estimates on the exact number of domestic labor migrants are

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not very accurate, European Union states have recognized the

need and demand for domestic workers and have attempted to

mitigate the problems associated with the highly elusive

field by regularizing domestic workers (United Nations,

2010). For example, Spain has an annual domestic quota to

regularize 9,000 domestic workers per year. While this is

still very low in comparison to the demand, it does open

opportunities for women stuck in illegal working situations

to apply for work visas, which in turn helps regulate

domestic work, implement labor standards, and stop abuses

that have been suffered chronically by migrant women (United

Nations, 2010).

According to the European Commission on Economics,

while the European Union has toughened its overall stance on

migration, there is an interest in developing selective

immigration policies (European Commission, 2006). As a

result the European Commission on Economics, the European

Parliament, as well as individual member states are

currently seriously examining selective immigration policies

for domestic labor (European Commission, 2006).

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Additionally, selective immigration policies are also

being examined due to Europe’s declining population. The

European Commission on Economics estimates that Europe will

suffer a decline in population of 58 million people between

2004 and 2050. In order to keep the population of Europe

health in relation to labor demands, migrants currently

serve as the solution (European Commission, 2006). Both

migrant men and women are needed to keep up with current

labor demands and are proving to be very effective at

maintaining a healthy population of younger people (European

Commission, 2006).

Conclusion

While there has been progress in relation to the rights

of migrant women in general, a lot of work still remains to

be done. There are still many undocumented women afraid to

seek assistance for fear of being deported, emotional

attachments to families, and simply not being aware of the

resources available to them (United Nations, 2010).

Recently there has been an emergence of many NGOs and trade

unions that have been established to combat the growing

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problem of abuse of domestic workers as well as the need to

bring them into the European Union. Furthermore, the

involvement of intergovernmental organizations for that the

United Nations Internal Labor Organization and research

conducted by affiliated groups such as the European Union

Agency for Fundamental Rights has shed light on this

important and growing concern of the rights, conditions, and

need for domestic workers in the European Union.

References

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The Feminization of European Union Migration

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