4.2 Non-communitarian immigrant women in the work market in spain  (Page 11/18)

Table 2. Occupied Women, 16 Years Old or More, by Main Non-Communitarian Nationalities According to Occupation (To 2 Digits of the CON-94).

34 - Professionals of support to the administrative management

44 - Administrative assistants with tasks of non-classified attention to the public

45 - Employees of direct treatment with the public in travel agencies, receptionists, and operators

46 - Tellers, box offices, and other employees assimilated in direct deal with the public

50 - Workers of the services of restoration

51 - Workers of Personal Services

53 - Assimilated employees of commerce

79 - Workers who deal with wood, cabinetmakers, textile, skin tailoring, leather, footwear, and assimilated industry

83 - Operators of fixed machines

91 - Domestic employees and other janitorial personnel

94 - Farming and fishing laborers

Source: Own elaboration from: INE. 2001 Census of population and houses. Definitive results . [www.ine.es]

Logically, the “acceptance level” of a job on behalf of immigrant women in the Spanish society, is inferior to that of the origin societies, especially when dealing with qualified women and/or of middle-class (Villa 1990). The domestic service deeply constitutes a devalued occupation in imaginary the social one of these countries, many times not considered use. Paradoxically, a considerable part of immigrant women who have not had previous labor experience in their countries of origin (housewives or students) and only a very small proportion was dedicated to the domestic service, an extremely discredited activity (Anguiano 2001). For all this, it is habitual, that when working in the domestic service in the Spanish society, creates, in some cases, serious problems of self-esteem and inconsistency of status. This is thus especially for the immigrant women who, according to the Colectivo Ioé (1998) present “experiences of descendent mobility.” It is about women who change their qualified tasks in their countries of origin – teachers, nurses, etc. –, to be shut in and isolated in the deprived scope of the home in which they are hired – especially in the case of intern employees, and to “to be ordered by everyone.”

The temporary or permanent character of immigration, as already indicated by Piore (1979), is an essential variable at the time of understanding why certain labor conditions are accepted and tolerated. In this sense, we must distinguish between the women whose main objective is the survival of the family group in the origin country, with a migratory project based on return, and those that try to elevate their individual/family status in the receiving society and to emulate modern ways of life. Whereas for the first, domestic service facilitates the attainment of their objectives, for the second, it is seen in a more traumatic form and permanently looks for formulas to accede another activity (Escrivá 2000).