4.2 Non-communitarian immigrant women in the work market in spain  (Page 7/18)

Escaping the traditional ideology of genders, that constructs the feminine identity from maternity and the roll of caretaker in the domestic sphere, also appears in many migratory projects of domestic employees of Philippine origin, as shown by the works of Salazar (2001). The massive growth of labor participation of women in the Philippines has not had positive consequences for women: not only do they receive low wages in a work market segmented by sex; they must also “add loads” and continue taking care – without the aid of their spouses – of family responsibilities. Emigration is considered as one double “route” of liberation that constitutes, in addition to an economic strategy, a strategy of liberation of so many duties and obligations of the family and the patriarchate. In Morocco, however, the cultural guidelines stigmatize the women’s “abandonment” of the home, reason why the leadership of the transnational home is basically exerted by men. However, after situations of divorce, separation, or widowhood, many Moroccan women also see themselves forced to leave the country in which they are socially stigmatized by ethical-religious reasons; reason why they are overrepresented in the statistics.

Since the 80’s, a new tendency in the flows of Moroccan women is assisted, with the arrival of young, often unmarried women and with university studies, that carry out independent migratory projects, with the purpose of finding a job and of improving their conditions of life  (Belarbi 1999; Ribas 2004). They often are women who in emigration, see an opportunity to alleviate the traditional forms of social control and that don’t want to reproduce the models of life of the women of their surroundings, even when knowing they are probably going to experience a descendent social mobility, with circumscribed labor opportunities to the domestic service. Women are who face difficult situations here, derived from the legal and social exclusion that implies being an immigrant, woman and, in addition, Muslim. The vision of the domestic service as an impediment to their promotion is the speech that sustains many of these immigrated women of Maghribian origin. The ambitions and aspirations emigration symbolizes for them who are alone and truncated in Spain, usually generate a noticeable feeling of frustration (Sole 1994).

Other women have emigrated not by their own will, but to flee from situations of violence, drug trafficking, or violation of human rights. An example is the case of a part of the native female population movements of Colombia (Young 1999). Many women who actively participated or through their companions in the social movements and left-wing political organizations during last the two decades, had to leave the country because they or their families were threatened to death. Although during the 80’s, many of these women acquired the legal status of refugees in Spain, the present cut of the figure of asylum and refuge conveys that, at the moment, they arrive to the country as immigrants, or domestic students, tourists, or employees.