EU migrant women : migration, family life and professional trajectories

PORTUGAL Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:29 Página 152 Abstract This article focuses on the impact of migration on the career and financial autonomy of migrant women living in Portugal coming from other countries of the European Union. It illustrates the main characteristics of the employment trajectories and current situation of these migrant women, namely by identifying the migration patterns which are more prevalent in the Portuguese case than elsewhere. These may reveal a certain specificity of the EU migration to Portugal, being more in accordance with a «traditional» model of family migration, and dominated by partner-related employment reasons. Key words:migrant women, European Union, career and financial autonomy, family histories. Resumen. Mujeres migrantes europeas: migración, vida familiar y trayectorias profesionales Este artículo se centra en el impacto que tiene la inmigración sobre las carreras profesionales y la autonomía finaciera de las mujeres de otros países de la Unión Europea que viven en Portugal. El trabajo ilustra las características principales de las trayectorias de empleo y la situación actual de estas mujeres, identificando un patrón de inmigración que está más presente en Portugal que en cualquier otro país europeo. Los resultados atisban una cierta especificidad del modelo migratorio intracomunitario en Portugal, asociado a un modelo «tradicional» de migraciones familiares que se explican a partir de las razones laborales del varón. Palabras clave:mujeres emigrantes, Unión Europea, carrera profesional y autonomía financiera, historias familiares. Papers. 60, 2000 153-166 EU migrant women: migration, family life and professional trajectories Heloísa Perista CESIS-Centro de Estudos para a Intervenção Social Av. A.A. Aguiar, 199-2º Dto. 1050-015 Lisboa (Portugal) [email protected] Summary Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:29 Página 153 1. Introduction 2. Partner-related reasons versus female leaded migration 3. Working conditions in the host labour market 4. Labour and family life 5. Conclusions References 1. Introduction This paper focuses on the impact of migration on the career and financial autonomy of migrant women living in Portugal who came from other countries of the European Union (EU)1. These EU migrant women (that is, EU nationals moving within the Community) constitute an important, and underresearched, group and its study provides a good test of the gendered nature and experience of European citizenship. However we must stress that «it is very difficult to generalise about the effect of migration on women’s career and financial autonomy, given the interaction of a whole range of life events. The motivations triggering the initial migration, together with women’s employment and educational status prior to migration, have proved to be important determinants of the postmigration experience. Changes in marital status and family formation in the host State also have a substantial impact on women’s labour market participation. The extent to which this reflects a lack of autonomy depends very much on domestic social policy and cultural attitudes around mothering» (Ackers, 1998: 187). Therefore, the assumption that EU migrant women share a broad universality of status —namely with EU migrant men on the one hand— and these women are equally «privileged» on the other hand, must be questioned. Actually, the results of this study have shown how the variation in women’s backgrounds in terms of social class, educational level, family status and also countries of origin and of destination as well, influence their migration experiences, namely in terms of professional career and personal autonomy. The Portuguese case appears as a rather «atypical» one among the countries where the empirical work involving the in-depth life-histories interviews2 which are at the basis of the current analysis took place. The women interviewed in Portugal present some characteristics that distinguish them from the EU migrant women in other countries, namely in terms of their employment histories. Considering the main motivations women gave for their initial migration, two groups are of particular interest here: those who said they moved with 154 Papers 60, 2000 Heloísa Perista 1. It reports to the findings of a research project on the gender dimension of intra-Community migration and the experiences of EU migrant women which was developed by a team of academic partners in Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The main results of this study were published in Ackers, 1998. This paper is specially based upon chapter six of this publication, «Citizenship and paid work: the impact of migration on employment status», which was written jointly by Louise Ackers and Heloísa Perista. 2. The central empirical focus of the project was on the 341 detailed life-history interviews which were done with migrant women in the five Member States. The interviews were designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. During the interview women were encouraged to talk about their migration history, their experiences of the migration process and its impact on: family/informal care networks; career and financial autonomy; identity (including a sense of feeling «European»); general quality of life (including experience of welfare systems); awareness and exercise of Community rights. Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:29 Página 154 career objectives in mind (to work, to study or to develop language competencies) and those who gave some partner-related explanation. In opposition to the prevalent trend among EU migrant women, EU female nationals living in Portugal present a higher proportion of women whose main reason to move was partner-related. These different initial motivations or objectives will constitute an important element in terms of the impact of migration on women’s employment trajectories. These last ones also depend on marriage and childbirth, as well as on problems of recognition of qualifications, etc., together with new opportunities and the development of career status and autonomy. The nationality of the women and the economic situation of the sending and receiving countries also has an important effect. In general, women from Southern countries, namely from Portugal and Spain, who migrated for employment-related reasons benefited from the move to an area where employment prospects are better. «Many other women were not so much influenced by «push» factors encouraging them to leave their home State as the lure of new opportunities elsewhere, which often meant they could utilise their skills to maximum effect in the host labour market» (Ackers, 1998: 189-90). The following will thus try to highlight the interaction of these diverse and complex dimensions to be considered in terms of the impact of migration experience on EU women’s employment trajectories, focusing on the particularities of the Portuguese case. 2. Partner-related reasons versus female leaded migration Most EU migrant women who are living in Portugal cited her partner as the main reason for their migration. Some forty-five women (60%) claim that their coming to Portugal was due to partner’s related reasons. Of these, nineteen (25%) refer to the partner career, in terms of increased job opportunities for him. The family came to Portugal due to a good job opportunity for the husband (D300)3. Came to Portugal two years ago, because of her husband’s job. «I usually follow him, but he always asks me if I want to go» (D306). Her husband works as a hotel director and every time he wants to progress in his career he has to move to a greater hotel in another town or in another country but always belonging to the same French economic group. That’s why they came to Portugal: here there was a job opportunity for her husband and Portugal is an EU country, not so far from France (D337). EU migrant women: migration, family life and professional trajectories Papers 60, 2000 155 3. Those codes were given for interviewees during the project, in order to assure anonymity. Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 155 This migration pattern is more prevalent in the Portuguese case than elsewhere which may reveal a certain specificity of the EU migration to Portugal, being more in accordance with a «traditional» model of family migration, and dominated by partner-related reasons. In most cases, Portugal was not chosen by the woman as an emigration country. Quite often, their coming to Portugal was even decided by the husband’s company. She came here because her husband was sent to Portugal to work (D311). They did not choose the country. It was her husband’s company that sent him here (D322). She came to Portugal 16 years ago «because my husband was sent here by his firm to direct the Portuguese branch» (D356). In other cases the decision of coming to Portugal was a husband’s choice. This is particularly frequent when the partner is Portuguese (or at least has Portuguese origins), what occurs in eighteen cases. Generally the decision of coming/returning to Portugal is up to the partner, and the woman follows him. Came to Portugal ten years ago (1985) with her ex-husband. «I didn’t choose to come to Portugal. He did» (D320). Came to Portugal two years ago with her companion who is of Portuguese origins. They were already living together in France where they met. He came to Portugal because he wanted to know the country since he had always lived in France. […] The choice to come was him (D342). «I didn’t choose Portugal. He was Portuguese so we came here» (D359). She was born in Italy. She met her husband in Paris when they were both living there: he was a teacher at the university and she was about to finish her graduation thesis. Her husband is Portuguese and that is the reason why she came to Portugal. In 1980 he decided to come back to Portugal and she came with him (D361). Some of these women (more precisely nine, which corresponds to 12% of all the interviewed in Portugal) joined her partner a few months later to his arrival. The woman usually stays longer in the country of origin because of the schooling of the children, but in some cases also due to personal reasons such as completing a degree. She came to Portugal in 1993 to join her husband who was already working here for nine months. She waited for the end of the schooling year to come (D300). 156 Papers 60, 2000 Heloísa Perista Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 156 After finishing her college degree she came to join her husband who had been working here for one year (D325). She came to Portugal five years ago to join her husband who had created an enterprise in Portugal a year ago (D333). We may find among these women whose coming to Portugal was primarily due to partner’s related reasons some who keep their professional activity after migration. In these cases, women’s careers do not seem to have been affected by the migration process. «I usually follow him, but he always asks me if I want to go.» This time she would only come if she could keep on working. Since the bank where she was working in France had a cooperation agreement with a Portuguese bank, she «was lucky to come to work to Portugal» (D306). Came to Portugal eight years ago with her husband and two children because of her ex-husband who came to be a teacher at the French Institute in Oporto. Now she stays here because of her work both in Oporto and in Lisbon: «I like the country very much and there is a lot of opportunities in the field where I’m working. I will make a new life here, now». She works as a painter for several museums (D343). Migrating for their own career was the case of 20% of the women interviewed in Portugal. In this group we find either women who declare having left their country of origin to work or to study. Education, development of language competencies and employment appear quite often related in terms of the main reasons for coming to Portugal. Sometimes, a woman decides to come for a short period in order to improve their language skills and at the end she gets a job and decides to stay. «I wanted to have a professional experience out of my country after I got my degree.» She applied for a trainee period through an international association of students and she was chosen to come to Portugal (although she preferred to go to Australia). At first, she intended to stay in Portugal for 6 months but after the trainee period she got another and another working contract and she is still here (D326). She came alone to learn Portuguese at a Portuguese university. During her studies in her home country she had already studied Latin, Spanish and French and she wanted to learn another language studying abroad. She got a scholarship and she came to Portugal for one year. After that, she got another scholarship for another year in order to get a post-graduation. And finally she decided to stay (D327). She came to Portugal in 1978 with a scholarship of one year while she was at the university in a course of Languages and Literature. […] She stayed one EU migrant women: migration, family life and professional trajectories Papers 60, 2000 157 Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 157 year at the Faculty of Humanities and then «I stayed for another year working at the high school Rainha Dona Leonor, in Lisbon. I had met my husband at the Faculty but I still returned to France because I didn’t want to make a decision about leaving my country like this. It’s not an easy decision. I was in France for one year and then we decided to stay here» (D346). Meeting a partner during a first stay in Portugal, quite often combined with work-related reasons, is one of the main reasons to turn an intended short stay in a longer, maybe permanent, one. Most of these women who migrated for their career came to Portugal alone, as single. Marriage or cohabitation comes afterwards, usually with a Portuguese man. Came to Portugal thirty years ago (1965). […] «The idea was to go away for two years, away from that island.» Her intention was to go back and continue her professional career, but that didn’t happen because in the meantime «I got married to a Portuguese» (D308). The case mentioned above, of a woman who migrated to work thirty years ago is an exception, since a large part of these women came to Portugal only a few years ago, in most cases during the 90’s. Their decision to migrate was often influenced by the difficult situation of the labour market in their home countries. Came to Portugal four years ago with her sister with the objective of coming here to work. There was an opportunity for them to open a beauty centre in Portugal and in France the market was completely full. «We couldn’t buy there, we had to rent, and we wanted to open a real big thing» (D315). «I like my work, the school is a good one and I’ve made some professional progresses. I have good friends, English and Portuguese. Besides, I have a job and in England I might not have, due to the unemployment situation» (D335). She decided to migrate because she didn’t get a place at the London Dance Company. […] In the meanwhile she was invited by the director of the Dance National Company of Portugal to come to this country and so she came (D373). In some cases, women came to Portugal having already a work contract, usually with a firm related to their country of origin or even with a subsidiary company. Left her country of origin in order to work. Had a two-year contract as a school teacher at the English school in Lisbon (Carcavelos) (D308). She came to Oporto because there was a vacancy at the German School of Oporto (D365). «I’m very curious and in Germany I had already worked with Portugal and Spain in the export/import business and I wanted to see my work from the 158 Papers 60, 2000 Heloísa Perista Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 158 other side. It was not possible to go to Spain and they asked me if I wanted to come to Lisbon. It was an opportunity to know another culture, another language, another country. On the other hand, coming here through the firm was important in professional terms» (D374). 3. Working conditions in the host labour market Being in a new country often creates difficulties to women who try to get a job. Most of these difficulties are related to their poor ability in dealing with the local language. «It’s very difficult. At the beginning I thought that I couldn’t get a job because of the language. I’m waiting for an answer for three different things» (D301). «When I came to Portugal, it was impossible to get a job in the journalism area since I didn’t speak Portuguese» (D309). Since she is in Portugal she has never had a paid job. «It would be difficult for me to get a job because of the language problems» (D340). Unemployment is thus not uncommon. In some cases, it is only for a few months, in other for a longer period which clearly reflects on women’s lack of satisfaction. She got a job a month ago, after a whole year of unemployment. For her it was very important to get a job because «after spending a whole year at home, for me who have been working since I was eighteen, it was driving me mad» (D311). Sometimes these women also experience difficulties in order to be able to find a job in the domain they used to work. Migration often implies a significant change in their professional lives. She used to work as a specialised nurse. She had to stop working when she came to Portugal «because that job is not available here» (D307). Having left her country had consequences in her professional life, «a total change. My professional project was not very clear and I’m working in an area that has nothing to do with my past. I’m not a journalist, I had no training, nor the opportunity to be a journalist in France. I learned a new job» (D310). In other cases this «change» means a job well below their real skills. Even women who have migrated with career objectives in mind have suffered downward career mobility in some cases. Therefore, we may find several women who are working in areas for which they are substantially overqualified. This process of deskilling is often due to the difficulties these women have to face in getting their qualifications and diplomas duly recognised in the host country. EU migrant women: migration, family life and professional trajectories Papers 60, 2000 159 Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 159 She is a psychologist. After being unemployed for one year, she got a job a month ago, in a tourist agency that belongs to the Spanish Tourism Bureau in Lisbon, which has nothing to do with her profession (D311). «I do a lot of things because we have to survive. These are activities which are below my skills and I suffer with that. […] So I must content myself with this under-employment or with jobs which I would never had taken in Belgium. […] I’m also a victim of my education: I have a degree, several courses and good skills. But those skills are not appreciated here... well, perhaps in Belgium they also were’nt...» (D327). «It is almost impossible to have our foreign certificates to be recognised here in Portugal» (D347). «I thought possibilities here would be the same. The first thing I did was learning the language, a thing Spanish people never do when they come here. Then I started to send my curriculum. As I didn’t have any equivalence, things started to close down for me» (D357). She had many problems to get the recognition of her qualifications as a talk therapist and to be able to exercise her profession in Portugal (D370). The impact of migration on women’s working life is evaluated by some of them as very negative. In some cases, migration is even perceived as imposing an end to their careers. For her it was «quite a disaster». In Spain she managed to live from her profession (she is a psychologist). She had an office and a network of patients and colleagues «I stopped doing that. It had been a great effort and it was very important for me to have achieved that. […] All that, I lost here» (D311). «Working was my life. […] My life is great but I do miss my work, it’s important for my mental health. I miss my work a lot» (D324). «It took me some time to get a job. And in Spain I had a professional career, I had several things already done and I could have more perspectives. Here I don’t. I’m doing a little work but I can’t do no more. In that sense, this is a bit frustrating» (D333). «It was the end of the possibility of having a career in my teaching profession. Here it’s completely impossible to have a career. I have no career» (D347). The most severe effects on women’s career and financial autonomy, as a result of migration, can be seen in the cases of women with professional qualifications and who had a highly developed professional career who had migrated because of their partners. Migration may therefore be faced as a double sided process, creating difficulties for women and being beneficial for their 160 Papers 60, 2000 Heloísa Perista Papers 60 151-166 29/6/00 11:30 Página 160