Browsing by Author "Luhtasaari, Mia"

The research focuses on the migratory experiences of Colombian and Ecuadorian women in Spain. Large numbers of labour migrants from Colombia and Ecuador arrived to Spain during the late 1990s and early 2000s and over a half of them were women. These women migrated largely alone and they were employed at first mainly as domestic servants or in the low paid health care and service sectors. The purpose of this research is to study women’s employment evolution and to connect their personal interpretations about labour migration to previous academic research. The overrepresentation of women in some migration flows from the global South has been explained in academic research especially by changes in the global labour market, which have increased women’s employment possibilities in the informal sector. This research looks at women’s global migration within a threefold theoretical framework: It combines an analysis about the available niched sources of employment for migrant women in the countries of destination in relation to the recolonization of migration. The research also uses the life-course perspective for the study of the personal experiences of Colombian and Ecuadorian women. The research was carried out by using a qualitative research methodology. Personal in-depth interviews with fourteen migrant women living in Spain provided the key material used for the research. Its focus was to find out, 1) how migrant women interpret their role in the global labour markets, 2) how their experiences on migration relate with the achievement of personal goals, and 3) how their work careers have changed and evolved during long-term migration. This research shows that migrant women do not perceive themselves as victims of an unequal global labour market. They understand their own role in it as a means to achieve the goals they set for migration. The main result of the research is that the experiences of Colombian and Ecuadorian on migration, and their aspirations to move on professionally to other sources of employment, are largely dependent on whether their migratory goals are set in Spain or in their countries of origin.