Migrant women’s employment in paid reproductive work through the crisis: the case of Italy (2007-2012)

Abstract

Paid reproductive work, especially in the case of cleaning and home-care for elderly people, is an important sector for foreign women in Italy. For this reason, since the beginning of the current economic crisis, scholars have wondered about the impact of the recession on migrant domestic workers. They have looked particularly at possible competition with Italian women entering the sector for lack of better alternatives. Our paper takes this discussion a step further by assessing the overall changes affecting migrant women in the Italian labour market, 2007-2012. We will look at how their position has been transformed, by taking both an ethnic perspective, in relation to Italian women, and a gender perspective, in relation to migrant men. By way of a conclusion, the argument will be made that there is a substantial lack of competition between Italian and foreign women in the care and domestic sector due to differences in their earnings, hours of work and activities. Keywords: Italy, domestic work, gender, ethnicity, economic crisis, labour market complementarity, migration. El empleo de las mujeres extranjeras en el trabajo reproductivo remunerado en la crisis: El caso de Italia (2007-2012) RESUMENEl trabajo reproductivo remunerado, especialmente por lo que hace a la limpieza y a los cuidados en el hogar de las personas mayores, constituye un sector importante para las mujeres extranjeras en Italia. Por esta razón, desde el comienzo de la actual crisis económica, los investigadores se han preguntado por el impacto de la recesión en las trabajadoras domésticas migrantes. Se han interesado, sobre todo, por la posible competencia con las mujeres italianas que se incorporan a este sector debido a la carencia de alternativas más atractivas. Nuestro artículo va un paso más allá de este debate evaluando el conjunto de los cambios que han afectado a las mujeres en el mercado de trabajo italiano desde 2007 a 2012. Analizamos cómo se ha transformado su posición, adoptando tanto una perspectiva étnica, en relación con las mujeres italianas, como una perspectiva de género, por lo que se refiere a los varones migrantes. Anna Di Bartolomeo & Sabrina MarchettiMigrant women´s employment 58 Investigaciones Feministas Vol. 7 Núm 1 (2016) 57-74 A modo de conclusión, se plantea que no se constata una competencia relevante entre las mujeres italianas y extranjeras en el sector doméstico y de cuidados, debido a las diferencias existentes en las ganancias, las horas trabajadas y las actividades laborales desempeñadas. Palabras clave: Italia, trabajo doméstico, género, etnia, crisis económica, complementariedad del mercado de trabajo, migración.

Inequalities

“…In other words, it is important to see whether migrant women compete with or rather complement non-migrant women and migrant men in the labour market, and whether these patterns changed during the recession. Looking at Italy between 2007 and 2021, in Di Bartolomeo and Marchetti (2016) we demonstrated what we call an 'ethnic complementarity' between Italian and foreign women. Migrant and Italian women complement each other, as they are employed in different occupations within the same sector, or they are performing different tasks within the same occupation.…”

“…If we look more closely, it is important to identify the elements of change and continuity for migrant women in the labour market through the crisis. This can be done by looking at elements of complementarity and competition with other workers' groups, both in ethnic terms (foreign women versus native women) and in gender terms (foreign women versus foreign men) (Di Bartolomeo & Marchetti, 2016). In other words, it is important to see whether migrant women compete with or rather complement non-migrant women and migrant men in the labour market, and whether these patterns changed during the recession.…”

Migration

“…After the 2008 crisis, despite rising unemployment in these three countries that were in the eye of the Eurozone storm (with average unemployment at nearly 25 per cent in Greece and Spain in 2013 and 12 per cent and rising in Italy the same year), native women appeared reluctant to find employment in this sector. Even if the demand for cleaning and care services by middle class families -hit by recession and unemployment -had fallen, the domestic work sector was less influenced by the crisis than for instance, the construction industry, or agriculture (Bonifazi & Marini, 2013;Di Bartolomeo & Marchetti, 2016;Gonzalez-Enriquez, 2013;Maroukis, 2013).…”

Crisis as Catalyst? Romanian Migrant Care Workers in Italian Home-Based Care Arrangements

“…Although these official figures must be analysed with caution, they point to an important facet of the domestic and care-work sector in general: it is relatively crisis-resistant. It seems more resistant to unemployment fluctuations relative to other sectors, which is especially true when it comes to female migrants (Di Bartolomeo -Marchetti 2016). Yet as the figures suggest, the sector underwent changes as the hiring practices of families changed.…”