Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T18:22:21.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Immigration, Welfare and Care in Portugal: Mapping the New Plurality of Female Migration Trajectories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2010

Karin Wall  and
Cátia Nunes
Karin Wall
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal E-mail: karin.wall@ics.ul.pt
Cátia Nunes
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal E-mail: catia.nunes@ics.ul.pt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of migrant women as domestic and care workers is a main characteristic of the feminisation of migration to southern Europe. This article aims to understand how and why current patterns of female migration to Portugal are a key element, driving increased flows of domestic workers. The article focuses first on the path followed by Portugal in the fields of immigration, employment, welfare-state developments and care arrangements, and then presents results of a qualitative study on Brazilian immigrant women. Findings show that the new plurality of female migration trajectories is an important factor in explaining the rapid integration of immigrant women in the domestic sector. This does not mean, however, that a predominant ‘migrant in the family’ care model has emerged in Portugal. In contrast with other southern European countries, different policy perspectives and outcomes over the last three decades have made for a more diversified care model. National contexts in southern European countries must therefore be taken into account, since they provide particular conditions for the main forms and features of migrant domestic work.

Type
Themed Section on Domestic and Care Work at the Intersection of Welfare, Gender and Migration Regimes
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 397 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, B. (2000), Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour, London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Baptista, P. (2009), ‘Imigração e Trabalho Doméstico: o Caso Português’, Masters Dissertation, ISEG-UTL, Lisbon.Google Scholar
Bettio, F., Simonazzi, A. and Villa, P. (2006), ‘Change in care regimes and female migration: the “care drain” in the Mediterranean’, Journal of European Social Policy, 16, 3, 271–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, P.M. (2004), Políticas de Imigração e as Novas Dinâmicas da Cidadania em Portugal, Lisbon: Instituto Piaget.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, B. and Hochschild, A. R. (eds.) (2003), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York: Henry Holt & Company.Google Scholar
Guerreiro, M. D. (2000), ‘Employment, family and community activities: a new balance for women and men’, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2000/120/en/1/ef00120en.pdf.Google Scholar
King, R. (ed.) (2001), The Mediterranean Passage: Migration and New Cultural Encounters in Southern Europe, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
Lutz, H. (ed.) (2008), Migration and Domestic Work: A European Perspective on a Global Theme, Hampshire: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Ministério do Trabalho e da Solidariedade Social (2006), Carta Social, MTSS: Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento.Google Scholar
Morokvasic, M. (1984), ‘Birds of passage are also women’, International Migration Review, 18, 886–907.Google ScholarPubMed
Nunes, C. (2009), ‘Percursos Migratórios no Feminino: Mulheres Brasileiras em Portugal’, Masters dissertation, FCSH-UNL, Lisbon.Google Scholar
OECD (forthcoming), Irregular Migration in OECD Member States: Nature, Profiles and Policies, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Google Scholar
Padilla, B. (2007), ‘A imigrante brasileira em Portugal: Considerando o género na análise’, in Malheiros, J. (ed.), Imigração Brasileira em Portugal, Lisbon, ACIDI, pp. 113–34.Google Scholar
Parreñas, R. (2001), Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Peixoto, J. (ed.) (2006), Mulheres Migrantes: Percursos Laborais e Modos de Inserção Socioeconómica das Imigrantes em Portugal, Lisbon: SOCIUS-ISEG.Google Scholar
Peixoto, J. and Figueiredo, A. (2007), ‘Imigrantes brasileiros e o mercado de trabalho em Portugal’, in Malheiros, J. (ed.), Imigração Brasileira em Portugal, Lisbon: ACIDI, pp. 87–112.Google Scholar
Pires, R. P. (2002), ‘Mudanças na imigração: uma análise das estatísticas sobre a população estrangeira em Portugal 1998–2001’, Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 39, 151–66.Google Scholar
São José, J. (2009), ‘Cuidar de um Familiar Idoso Dependente’, Ph.D. dissertation, ICS-UL, Lisbon.Google Scholar
São José, J. and Wall, K. (2006), ‘Trabalhar e Cuidar de um Idoso Dependente’, Cadernos Sociedade e Trabalho, 7, 119–54.Google Scholar
Torres, A., Silva, F. V., Monteiro, T. L. and Cabrita, M. (2005), Homens e Mulheres entre Família e Trabalho, Lisbon: CITE.Google Scholar
Wall, K. (1998), Famílias no Campo: Passado e Presente em duas Freguesias do Baixo Minho, Lisbon: D. Quixote, Colecção Portugal de Porto.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wall, K. (2005), Famílias em Portugal: Percursos, Interacções, Redes Sociais, Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais.Google Scholar
Wall, K. and Escobedo, A. (2009), ‘Portugal and Spain: two pathways in Southern Europe’, in Kamerman, S. and Moss, P. (eds.), The Politics of Parental Leave Policies, Policy Press, pp. 207–26.Google Scholar
Wall, K., Nunes, C. and Matias, A. R. (2008), ‘Mulheres Imigrantes e Novas Trajectórias de Migração: Um Croché Transnacional de Serviços e Cuidados no Feminino’, in Cabral, M. V., Wall, K., Aboim, S. and Silva, F. C. (eds.), Itinerários. A Investigação nos 25 anos do ICS, Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, pp. 603–22.Google Scholar
Wall, K., Samitca, S. and Leitão, M. (2008a), ‘Work–family policies in Portugal’, ICS Working Paper, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, Lisbon.Google Scholar
Wall, K., Samitca, S. and Leitão, M. (2008b), ‘Elderly care in portugal: working and caring for an elderly person’, Final Report Woups Project, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, Lisbon.Google Scholar