The labor market is experiencing a sweet moment. The last quarter reached the figure of 20.45 million workers, a peak that had not been climbed at the beginning of the year since the brick bubble, in 2008. This acceleration is supported by the 368,000 jobs created in the last 12 months, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA). One of them is that of the Argentine María del Pilar Liñan, a waitress in a restaurant in Alcobendas (Madrid) since March. “Getting a job has been a hard process, but I am very happy,” she explains, at 34 years old. Cases like hers are the engine of this impulse: 160,000 of the new positions (44%) are for foreign women. If we add to them the 44,000 new jobs for women with dual nationality (12%), we find that 56% of the jobs created in the last year are held by women with a passport other than Spanish.
The data on foreign workers is even more noteworthy in a demographic comparison: there are 2.85 million foreign women in Spain, 6% of the total population. 1.28 million of them work, 14.3% more than a year ago. It is the group that grows the most, followed by women with dual nationality (10.21%) and foreign employees (6.18%), while the number of Spanish workers (0.6%) and national workers (0. 39%) has barely changed.
In the Red Acoge, a federation of organizations specialized in the inclusion of migrants, they have perceived this impulse for months. “We are seeing a clear increase in requests for accompaniment for women’s job placement,” explains Natalia Slepoy, head of the organization’s Political Advocacy Area. “In the data of foreign affiliates to Social Security, an increase is perceived among women in recent months,” say sources from the Ministry of Migration. Slepoy believes that one of the main reasons for this impulse is a structural change in the type of immigration: “Women are now protagonists of their migration processes. They often come on their own and also do so to support their families in their countries of origin”.
Sana Elimlahi, head of Accem’s intervention service in the Community of Madrid, agrees: “In the 80s and 90s, women who arrived used to do so accompanying a man and with the idea of caring. Now it is much more common for them to work. They are increasingly qualified and adapt to everything, whatever the context. They really want to get a job.” There are several pieces of data that support this statement, but this is one of the ones that best supports it: in 2008, when there were more foreign workers in Spain (2.86 million), 57% were men and 43% women. Now foreign workers are 53% and women, 47%, “a historic percentage” according to the Ministry of Migration. In addition, there are already more female workers with dual nationality than male workers.
Hipólito Simón, Professor of Economics at the University of Alicante, believes that the inflationary crisis has also been able to motivate the entry of foreigners into the labor market. “Surely the sharp worsening of the economic situation in many households due to high inflation plays a relevant role. This unforeseen situation of need has surely encouraged many women to try to find a job to supplement their household income”. This phenomenon, he explains, is that of the “added worker”, through which inactive people join the labor market when the employment circumstances of their partners are not adequate. This is complemented by the lower income in the homes of immigrants. “The bulk of the growth in employment in the last year in Spain has been concentrated in immigrant women, who suffer doubly from the above.”
Along the same lines, the UGT Deputy General Secretary for Union Policy, Fernando Luján, explains that when unemployment falls, it is normal for it to do so especially in the groups that suffer the most. Among foreign women it is 22%, two points less than a year ago. However, it is much higher than that of foreigners (17.8%), Spanish (13.92%) and Spaniards (10.55%). “It is a gap that we have to close,” says Luján.
Ferran Camas, professor of Labor Law and director of the Department of Immigration at the University of Girona, points to other circumstantial reasons, such as “the increase in the granting of residence and work authorizations based on roots, particularly social roots -in summer of 2022 a reform of the legislation favored its obtaining—”. He also highlights the weight of “about 150,000 people from Ukrainethe majority women, who were granted residence and work authorization automatically.
The CCOO Confederal Secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions, Carolina Vidal, also points to improving the conditions of domestic workers, who since September 2022 have the right to unemployment and more protection against dismissal: “That reform and labor inspection campaigns have contributed to an increase in employment in Social Security, a sector in which almost half of the workers are foreigners”. Precisely the increase in the activity rate of Spanish women —54%, four points more than in 2008— It also contributes to greater employability of foreign women in the care sector, in Simón’s opinion. Spanish women continue to assume most of the care by obligation, and when they do not, it is largely at the expense of immigrant workers, not men. And there is an increasing demand for these professionals, in a country as aged as Spain.
deep precariousness
Wendy Marisol Zerón, a 40-year-old Honduran, is one of those domestic workers. “I arrived in 2012 and it was very difficult for me to find a job. I had a very bad time. I started as an intern taking care of a man. He worked six days a week, put in many more hours than he should have and earned between 750 and 800 euros, ”she laments. Now she has slightly improved her situation: she earns the minimum wage (1,080 gross euros per month), she works 40 hours a week, her bosses do not exploit her and she is external. “These jobs are very hard, very tiring. I have put out CVs to dedicate myself to something else, but I have not had any luck ”. Foreign women earned an average of 11,800 euros per year in 2021, 3,500 less than foreigners, 8,000 less than Spanish women and less than half that of Spaniards.
Wendy’s situation is the most common among foreign women: they are mainly engaged in activities that require a lot of physical exertion and low wages, such as caregiving, cleaning, hospitality, or agriculture. “Migrant women have many problems accessing better paid positions. A feminism that only breaks glass ceilings is not worth it, it also has to clear sticky floors,” says Vidal, very critical of “voices that I have heard on the right and the extreme right” who, she says, defend that Spanish women need other women who take care to work. “There is a tremendous sexist and class problem, like the one that has occurred with Filipino domestic workers, in terrible conditions. We have to improve those situations.” Fatima (she prefers not to reveal her last name) is a 26-year-old Moroccan who works in a fruit shop. “The worst is the racism of employers. I know that there are stalls in clothing stores that they have not given me because I am Moroccan. They want us in positions where we are rarely seen, ”she laments angrily.
Elimlahi, from Accem, points out several reasons that keep the ground sticky for migrants: “Foreign workers have the same problems as Spanish ones, but with even more aggravating factors. For example, it is common for them to be asked if they are going to get pregnant, unlike them. But employers also know that they have less support network than Spanish women, so it penalizes them more. In many cases there is also the language barrier and, of course, it seems that the experience they bring from their countries does not count”.
This last element was one of the main barriers that Nicaraguan Diana Gutiérrez, 32, has had to face. She studied cooking in her country, but she has not been able to practice her profession until she has taken a specific course in Spain. “Since 2018 I have tried to dedicate myself to it, but it was impossible. Even if you know how to do it, if the experience is in your country it is not worth it. There are many people with a lot of desire, waiting for an opportunity, to whom they do not want to give it. Many believe that we do not know, as if we were not civilized. It is very sad and you feel very alone, but we are fighters and disciplined people”. She spent several years cleaning houses, “a very hard job that has made me cry many times”, for which she never earned more than 800 euros and for which she worked twice the hours she quoted. “After training I got my current position in a catering company and I am very happy. Now I can afford a rental.”
Argentine María del Pilar Liñan is also facing problems because her studies are not recognized in Spain. “I have university studies in Social Work, with years of experience in my country, letters of recommendation and a good resume. I have distributed many, but they have not even done an interview with me ”. After several months trying in her sector, she accepted a job as a street sales agent and now works as a waitress. “I’m happy, but I don’t stop looking at my profession.”
The Accem specialist believes that speeding up the recognition of titles is the main pending issue for the Government to improve the conditions of foreign workers. The one from Red Acoge, Slepoy, points to the regulation of undocumented workers: “We must provide facilities so that people can regularize their situation and integrate into society with full recognition of rights. There are activities with occupations not covered for which regularization would be a first step”. She also calls for “structurally addressing a care policy”, so that foreign women in this sector have “better protection”.
a persistent trend
The growing role of foreign women in the labor market is a phenomenon with signs of continuing to grow. They are already 6.3% of the country’s labor force, increasingly close to 7% of foreigners. In parallel, the proportion of Spanish women (38%) and Spaniards (44.6%) fell, the latter at historical lows. Demographic trends will continue to deepen this process. “The birth rate in Spain is extraordinarily low, one of the lowest in the world, which in the medium term will mean a significant drop in the number of native people of working age, and the shortage of native workers will add to a sharp increase migratory pressure from the areas of origin. All this will certainly produce an increase in the relative weight of foreign workers in the labor force in Spain”, says Simón. The foreign group with the greatest presence in the Spanish labor market is that of Latin Americans.
At the same time, the number of workers with dual nationality continues to grow, a “logical” process in the opinion of Camas. “Most foreigners living in Spain came from the year 2000, therefore they have been here for more than 20 years, far exceeding the minimum time that is generally required to obtain nationality. To this must be added the shorter requirements in terms of residence time that Spain has with various countries, especially in Latin America, to obtain nationality”, concludes the expert from the University of Girona.
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