By: carlota solé & Sonia parella  (Page 10/18)

Table 1. Affiliated Foreign Workers in Labor Increase, According to Sex, by Branch of Activity, Up to 14-01-2004.

(1) includes those not classifiable by sex.

Source: Social ministry of Work and Subjects. Yearbook of Labor Statistics, Data bank of Labor Series (BDSL) [www.mtas.es/estadisticas]

We must have present that this data includes all foreign women, including those coming from countries of the UE, reason why the labor segregation would be even more marked if we were centered exclusively in non-communitarian foreign workers. The data on foreign workers in labor increase in the Social Security up to 14-01-2004 according to nationalities show how the labor segregation of the female immigrant is more or less accused according to their origin country. 63% of the affiliated Philippine women work in homes, having also emphasized the presence in this regime of Social Security, the Dominican affiliated ones (40.2%), Peruvian (37.3%), Ecuadorian (29.9%), Colombians (27.9%) and, in smaller proportion, the Moroccans (22.1%). The women coming from East Europe follow the same tonic, with elevated percentages in this sector, mainly among women coming from the Ukraine (28.1%) (CCOO-CERES 2004:56).

Of the total of 348,616 foreign women affiliated with the Social Security up to 14-01-2004, 27.9% and 15.5% are concentrated, respectively, in the Independent Community of Madrid and the province of Barcelona, main urban centers of the country and, therefore, outstanding plaintiffs of domestic employees: 46.2% of the total foreigners affiliated with the Special Regime of Home Employees for the set of Spain are in Madrid and 15.4% in the Barcelona province. Also, the feminization of the domestic service is shown when stating that 91.7% of the total foreigners affiliated with this Regime of the Social Security are women. The predominant profile of domestic employee according to nationality depends on the independent community. Thus, while in Madrid it is more frequent to find Dominicans and Eastern Europeans, and Latin American women in Catalunya, the presences of Moroccan women in this activity has been, until now, proportionally greater in Andalusia (Gualda, Ruiz 2004).

Analogous conclusions are made from the data of the 2001 Census of population and houses . If we focus on the main non-communitarian nationalities of the occupied women registered in the Census, it is observed that they mainly work as “nonqualified workers” with a percentage close to 50% (except for women of Argentine and Chinese nationality, which nearly constitute 24%) in this category. This data contrasts with the percentage distribution of the women of Spanish nationality, just by 13.5% of the occupied women carrying out nonqualified activities. Also, Table 2 allows us to deepen in the concrete activity that these workers carry out and shows its main occupations of the National Classification of Occupations (CNO-94) with two digits. The results, once again, are flagrant: the domestic and janitor services (digits 91) is its labor niche for excellence, mainly for Latin American women (except for the Argentineans), with a percentage close to 50%. The workers of the services of restoration (digits 50) are located in second position, although with a large distance. Both occupations – domestic service and catering – only constitute 14.1% of the women of Spanish nationality.