4.2 Non-communitarian immigrant women in the work market in spain  (Page 5/18)

The distribution of non-communitarian foreign women residents in Spain with a card or authorization of residence, according to main nationalities, shows the predominance of the group of Moroccan women in absolute terms (with a 15.4% of total women to 31,12,2003, are the most numerous group of women), even though it is not a migratory flow specially feminized (34.14%). Within the group of Latin American women, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru stand out - who occupy second, third, and fourth position, by that order, as the main countries of origin. In this sense, is worthy of mentioning the spectacular numerical ascent of Colombian and Ecuadorian women, who are no longer seen as poorly statistically significant and now occupy the first positions in a very brief period of time, since the late 90’s.

With respect to the distribution of nationality groups according to sex, the country with the greatest percentage of women is the Dominican Republic (64.54%), followed by the Philippines (58.94%), Colombia (58.84%), Cuba (57.53%), and Peru (54.29%). Rumania and Morocco, however, are among the groups where there is a noticeable predominance of men, with 34% and a 38% of women, respectively.

The migratory projects of non-communitarian women immigrants in spain

At the time of approaching what are the migratory projects of female immigrants, it must be divided of the heterogeneity of origins and circumstances that sublie after the label “woman immigrant.” Even so, according to the investigations of the Ioé Group (1998), we can extract a series of more or less representative profiles, that clearly break the most recurrent stereotypes on feminine migration and that present it as a homogenous group, passive, and subedited to the migratory project of a man.

The economic causes seem to prevail as the main detonators, within a family strategy that peruses to obtain or to complete their income. The lack of job opportunities in the origin countries is the general tonic. It is usually young women, with family loads, many with average or superior studies, and with elevated occupation rates in the receiving society, clearly superior to those of native women. In these cases, it is usually themselves that initiate the migratory project, leaving their family in the country of origin and becoming the main “economic supporter,” whether they are single mothers with a couple or, mainly, women with children to care for. The latter ones constitute families lead by women, and are maximally exposed to situations of vulnerability in their countries of origin from the economic and social point of view. Even though homes maintained by women exist in all societies, it is observed in Latin American countries, according to Buvinic (1990), an important increase of incidence in the latter years, as a result of tendencies related to the weakening of the familiar bows (that is to say, the men escape from the responsibility of caring for their families), that have to do with the dismantling of the systems of patriarchal familiar government and the diminution of the real income of homes; not forgetting less conjuncture factors, of cultural character, such as the reproductive and familiar strategies of men (practices of gender), that decisively affect the well-being of families and the migratory projects of women.