scholarly journals The double penalty: How female migrants manage family responsibilities in the Spanish dual labour market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Sánchez-Domínguez ◽  
Luis Guirola Abenza

Objective: This study examines the convergence of employment behaviour and work-life balance of foreign-born women with those of native-born Spanish women between 2014 and 2018. Background: The changing role of women in the labour market is a central development of the past century. However, the study of female labour market participation has focused on native women, typically with a college education. Method: We use the Spanish Labour Force Survey and its 2018 ad hoc module on the reconciliation of work and family life to compare the working behaviours of native and migrant women. We use a matching algorithm to construct a sample of native workers with comparable human capital and living arrangement characteristics. Results: The segmentation of the Spanish labour market leads to the concentration of female immigrants in specific occupational niches with precarious employment conditions, regardless of the length of their stay in the country. The country’s employment and care regime forces female migrants to deal with their care responsibilities differently than their native counterparts: i.e., migrants are more likely than natives to interrupt their employment to fulfil household duties, and are less likely to engage in part-time work and to outsource care provision to family and professional caregivers. Conclusion: Female immigrants are doubly penalised as both immigrants and mothers.

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-604
Author(s):  
Sunčica Stanković

Abstract In conditions of great social changes that have affected the entire world since the beginning of 1980, there is the emergence of new social risks such as difficult labour market entry, stable employment problem, the problem of outdated qualifications, affecting both women and men. In the competitive race for employment, differences between men and women in the market are conditioned by their starting position. The position of women is required by expectations which exist in regard to their gender role. Women are additionally burdened by establishing a balance between work and family responsibilities, especially childcare and with caring for elderly family members.Men are more often employed in areas that are better paid and socially valued, while women are mainly employed in the service sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the quality of labour force in the Republic of Serbia and changes in the gender wage gap during the observed period. The main indicators of gender inequality show significant differences in the status of women compared to men in the labour market. Analysis of labour market trends over the past decade has illustrated that the position of women is constantly deteriorating.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muno Mohamed Osman

This research study explores the experiences of working African immigrant mothers in accessing formal childcare services in Toronto. I start the study with an over view of the literature on the topics of access to childcare service and women’s labour force participation. I then review social reproduction and black feminist theories; the theoretical framework for my research. I also highlight the current state of childcare in Canada and how this affects African immigrant mothers who work. The study includes qualitative in-depth interviews with four such mothers who talk about their challenges and experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities in Toronto. The study found that the mothers are dissatisfied with several aspects of the childcare services they use or have used in the past. The mothers also face many struggles owing to patriarchal gender norms in their households and loss of extended family supports after immigration.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sew Ming Tian

Through face-to-face interviews with seven immigrant women living in the Flemingdon Park area, this paper explores the barriers that immigrant women encounter in accessing the labour market, and the challenges they face in the labour market. The findings suggest that lack of work experience, language barriers, absence of networks, lack of education, and family responsibilities and gender roles are major barriers that immigrant women have to cope with while accessing the Canadian labour market. Working environment and underemployment appeared to be the challenges that immigrant women who are, or have been in the labour force, had to deal with in the work place.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Maria Yu. Beletskaya ◽  
Elena A. Zotova

In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO), together with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), prepared and presented to the G20 leaders a report entitled “Women at work in G20 countries: Progress and policy action”. According to the report, Canada, the United States and Russia show the lowest results among the G20 countries in reaching the goal of reducing the gender gap in labour force participation by 25 percent by 2025. This is largely due to the relatively high levels of gender equality that have already been achieved in these countries. The article analyzes the policy of Canada, the USA and Russia towards women at work in four directions: 1) measures taken by national Governments, in cooperation with social partners, to increase women’s participation in the labour force and to overcome cultural and behavioural barriers to the employment of women; 2) measures to increase women’s ability to earn decent wages, including through lifelong learning, upgrading qualifications and skills development; 3) measures to reduce the proportion of women employed in the informal sector and in low-paid jobs; 4) measures to protect women in labour market in order to encourage men and women to combine work and family and share family responsibilities equitably.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sew Ming Tian

Through face-to-face interviews with seven immigrant women living in the Flemingdon Park area, this paper explores the barriers that immigrant women encounter in accessing the labour market, and the challenges they face in the labour market. The findings suggest that lack of work experience, language barriers, absence of networks, lack of education, and family responsibilities and gender roles are major barriers that immigrant women have to cope with while accessing the Canadian labour market. Working environment and underemployment appeared to be the challenges that immigrant women who are, or have been in the labour force, had to deal with in the work place.


2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Ann McMullin

ABSTRACTOver the last several decades there have been changes in how paid and unpaid labour is divided between men and women: The rate of women's participation in the labour force women has increased as has men's participation in household labour. Although a plethora of research has addressed these changes by analysing couple and individual data, few have examined them within the context of multi-generational families. Using a case study analysis of a three-generation family, this paper shows that gender, class, social context, and family background influence how paid and unpaid work is divided within families. The case study shows that the social context of a given time conditions the options women and men have available to them in negotiating the balance of work and family responsibilities. Yet within this context, family background also matters. Negative childhood experiences were an impetus for adult children negotiating patterns of paid and unpaid labour that were different from those of their parents.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Biegel ◽  
Jonas Wood ◽  
Karel Neels

Objective: we explore migrant-native differentials in the uptake of formal and informal childcare and whether this is induced by lower demand for childcare versus differential access to (in)formal childcare compared to natives. Background: The rise in female labour market participation in recent decades has challenged parents to negotiate work and family responsibilities and organise childcare. Belgium is among the European countries with the highest availability of formal childcare, but maternal employment and uptake of childcare are substantially lower in migrant populations. Methods: Combining linked microdata from the 1991 and 2001 censuses with contextual data on childcare availability at the municipality level, we use multinomial logit models to study childcare use and type of childcare arrangement among parents having a young child in 2001. As access to childcare and maternal employment are mutually endogenous, we use estimated employment opportunities. Results: We find considerable migrant-native differentials in childcare use, as well as substantial differences between first and second generation migrants. Second generation mothers of Turkish, Moroccan and Eastern-European background are less likely than natives to use childcare, and more likely to rely on informal arrangements if childcare is used. Controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and differential availability of (in)formal childcare largely accounts for differences in childcare use, but Turkish and Moroccan women remain less likely to use care and first generation Turkish mothers remain more likely to use informal care as opposed to formal childcare. Conclusions: While differences in socio-demographic characteristics, labour market opportunities and availability of (in)formal care provide a partial explanation, partial migrant-native differentials in childcare use persist for specific groups, suggesting that other factors inhibit the uptake of formal childcare.


2015 ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Kocot-Górecka

Changing gender roles are increasingly considered as a driving factor of both fertility decline in European countries and its recovery in some of these countries. The fertility decline is attributed to the first stage of the gender revolution when increasing women’s labour force participation is accompanied by some progress in gender equality in the public sphere while in the family life a gender asymmetry remains. During the second stage of the gender revolution the progress towards new roles of men and women in the private sphere takes place – they both are considered as economic providers and careers and share work and family responsibilities (e.g. McDonald 2000b, Goldscheider, Bernhardt, Lappegård 2015, Esping-Andersen, Billari 2015). The article compares on-going changes in gender roles in Poland and Norway, two countries which are at different stages of this process, and their interplay with fertility (mean number of children and intensions about the second and third child). Attitudes towards gender equality are studied by taking into account views on this issue on one side and sharing care and housework on the other. Data come from the first round of the Generations and Gender Survey. The study has been performed for respondents aged 20–44, living together with a partner and children under 14 years of age. The descriptive analyses showed that Poles are not only less advanced in gender role changes in two gender dimensions studied: their views on gender roles are more traditional than Norwegian ones, women’s share in family duties is higher contrary to men who contribute less to family responsibilities than women and men in Norway. There is also a higher variation of views and practices among Poles. In Poland and Norway, egalitarian men participate more in family duties than those who declare traditional views, while egalitarian women are less burdened by home work and care. However, in Norway there is remarkably more egalitarian women with low and medium share of domestic duties in parallel to more numerous egalitarian men who take a great share of family responsibilities. More egalitarian respondents have fewer children than the traditional ones in both countries. However, the mean number of children among this group of respondents in Norway is higher than in Poland. Moreover, women in both countries are less inclined to declare intensions to have a second or third child when they participate more in care and domestic duties. This relationship has been found for men in Norway as well.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bentley Schieckoff ◽  
Claudia Diehl

Objective: This article investigates the role of motivation in female immigrants' labour force participation. Focusing on recently-arrived immigrants (who have resided in the host country for 18 months or less), we compare the outcomes of two different ethnic groups in Germany: Poles and Turks. Background: The immigrant integration literature tends to focus on the role of resources in immigrant labour market integration. However, when examining particularly the labour force participation of female immigrants, their motivation for joining the labour force is also important. Previous studies of female immigrants in Germany have often neglected this consideration, which includes aspects like culturally-specific gender values and perceived ethnic discrimination. Method: We use data from the SCIP project (Diehl et al., 2015) to conduct logistic regressions on female immigrants’ labour force participation. Our sample includes 829 female immigrants from Poland and Turkey between the ages of 18-60, who were either active in the labour force or were 'at risk' of entering.  Results: In line with previous studies, our analysis shows that female immigrants' labour market resources, mainly their prior work experience and German proficiency, greatly reduce the ethnic gap in labour force participation rates. Moreover, motivational factors have a large impact on this outcome for both groups, and greatly enhance the picture that our empirical models present. However, we find no evidence that perceived ethnic discrimination plays an important role.  Conclusion: Our analysis indicates that when seeking to understand the labour market participation of female immigrants, their resources and motivation should be seen as key components of a gender-sensitive analysis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muno Mohamed Osman

This research study explores the experiences of working African immigrant mothers in accessing formal childcare services in Toronto. I start the study with an over view of the literature on the topics of access to childcare service and women’s labour force participation. I then review social reproduction and black feminist theories; the theoretical framework for my research. I also highlight the current state of childcare in Canada and how this affects African immigrant mothers who work. The study includes qualitative in-depth interviews with four such mothers who talk about their challenges and experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities in Toronto. The study found that the mothers are dissatisfied with several aspects of the childcare services they use or have used in the past. The mothers also face many struggles owing to patriarchal gender norms in their households and loss of extended family supports after immigration.


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