By: carlota solé & Sonia parella  (Page 16/18)

The sector of industrial cleaning activities is another occupation to which immigrant women, who want to leave the domestic service, accede; although it is estimated that, so far, it is only around 2% of the feminine work force (Colectivo IOÉ 2001a). The reason for this is that this occupation requires the possession of a work permit, for which the policies of contingents allow the regulation of home employees, but not of cleaners. Although its main advantage is the possibility of quoting in the Social Security, the lack of stability of the sector (contracts of very short) and low wages, paid per hour, often do not compensate if the immigrant worker is trying to reunite the maximum economic benefits in the minimum possible time, to be able to return to their country of origin as soon as possible (Catarino, Oso 2000).

But the most common pattern of labor mobility tends to be found within services linked to social reproduction, throughout its different hierarchized modalities. In this sense, although many of the immigrant women initially become part of the domestic service, the possession of formation, the dwell time, the legal status, and the family situation, influence in the different labor trajectories. The first step is leaving the internal domestic service and become external or assistant employees per hour, while they manage to reunite the family. The women’s education level the knowledge of the language condition the type of labor insertion, in the sense that many Latin American women with formation as nurses or teachers are preferably hired for taking care of people and not as much cleaning tasks, and with time, we also found them mainly in geriatric residences or home service companies, in which they can be quoted in the General Regime of Social Security (Parella 2003).

Finally, the results of a survey made by the Colectivo Ioé (2001a) to immigrant women, foreigners quoted in the Social Security, nationalized women, and women in irregular situations, show that, although the labor mobility out of domestic service is larger every time, its potential of auto-recruitment continues being unquestionable. Just as shown by the authors in this study, domestic employees who have never worked in another sector compose 82%, as opposed to 52% in catering services, 25% among women who work on their own, and 14% for those who work in cleaning companies. Also, it is observed that women who have previously worked in the domestic service have a special importance, which shows that this activity continues being the “front door” to the work market (Colectivo Ioé 2001a:735).

At first, we can conclude that usually there is no mobility from other sectors to the domestic service, although Gualda and Ruiz (2004) show a different guideline in the Andalusian province of Huelva: a jump from agriculture to the domestic service. Since the late 90’s, with the development of intensive agriculture, there is a producing process from substitution of manual labor that begins with the displacement of the national seasonal workers by Maghribian workers, who as well, at the present time are being replaced by women coming from East Europe. In agreement with Gualda and Ruiz (2004), the agrarian industrialists see women as a more responsible, manageable, and less conflicting work force; they are less conflicting than young people and Moroccan unmarried men. Nevertheless, due to the seasonal and difficult conditions of working in the field, it is more common for these women to look for jobs in other sectors, especially in the domestic service.