Not only men but also migrants in non-traditional occupations

1. The implementation of the research and the article are the expression of a real and continuous collaboration between the authors and the scientific co-ordinator of the project, Bianca Beccalli.

Abstract

Domestic labour is considered a typical female job, and due to the arrival of large migration flows to Italy it has experienced a massive ethnicized connotation, peculiar of this sector. This paper focuses on how a double and subaltern condition of belonging to a ‘minority group’ affects gender perceptions of male migrant domestic workers and how they construct their masculinity.

This research is based on a comparison between 54 interviews with male and female migrant domestic workers, drawing on an intersectional approach based on gender and nationality. It shows how moving across borders, living in a host society, and working in a non-traditional job can reshape male immigrants' gender division perceptions, often in contradictory and unexpected ways. It also emerges how the ‘racial glass escalator’ allows reaffirmation of characteristics tied to the privileges of masculinity and furnishes an important and useful framework in which to analyse the experience of men in ‘female’ occupations.

Keywords:

• non-traditional jobs
• racial glass escalator
• intersectionality
• domestic work

Notes on contributors

Cristina Quartararo is a collaborator of ‘Progetto Integrazione’, a non-profit organization that provides researches, services, and training for immigrant inclusion. She is also a collaborator of the Centre for Women and Gender Differences, University of Milan.

Daniela Falcinelli is a researcher and co-ordinates the Centre for Women and Gender Differences, University of Milan.

Notes

1. The implementation of the research and the article are the expression of a real and continuous collaboration between the authors and the scientific co-ordinator of the project, Bianca Beccalli.

2. In this article we draw on secondary analysis of a sample of 54 in-depth interviews selected from the PRIN database of 682 in-depth interviews conducted in Italy, ‘Nazionalità, genere e classe nel nuovo lavoro domestico. Cambiamenti nella famiglia italiana e evoluzione dei sistemi migratori’. The study investigates four different immigrant groups: from the Philippines, Ecuador, Ukraine, Romania. This fulfilled our twofold need: (1) to analyse cases pertaining to the nationalities numerically more concentrated in domestic work in Italy; and (2) to have an adequate basis on which to develop comparison between men and women. Thus selected were 54 interviewees – 32 women and 22 men – divided into four national groups: Filipinos, Ecuadoreans, Ukrainians, and Romanians.

3. The current growth of domestic work in Italy is distinguished by a constantly increasing percentage of foreign-born workers in the sector. In 1999 the foreign domestic workers enrolled with the INPS (National Social Security Institute) represented just over half of the total. In 2001, for the first time after 50 years, the number of domestic workers in Italy began to grow again, and in 2002, following regularization, the foreign domestic workers enrolled with the INPS reached 74.3%. The growth trend continued in 2003 (+6.5% at national level), reaching 75.8%. From 2004 there was a slight downturn which reduced the foreign incidence until 2006.

4. The secondary labour market, in dual labour market theory terms.

5. According to the annual report on the immigrant labour market issued by the Ministry of Labour (31 December 2011).

6. The Italian Social Security (Previdenza sociale) system is managed by the National Social Security Institute (Instituto Nazionale Previdenza Sociale, INPS) which provides benefits to employees and the self-employed in case of illness, maternity, or unemployment. Employees legally working in Italy are registered with the INPS, which is in charge of contribution rates and benefit entitlements.

7. This derives from membership of a group.

8. Italian admission policies are characterized by a high degree of restrictiveness and inflexibility despite having acknowledged the necessity of foreign labour. Regularization is often obtained thanks to so-called ‘Sanatorie’ (amnesties) used as functional substitutes of admission policies. Their reiteration (2002–2009–2012) produces the paradoxical effect of allowing the ‘entry’ of migrants who actually are just living (and usually working) in Italy. In particular these amnesties privilege the access to domestic sector, which is an important recruiter of immigrants.

9. The construction industry is the sector with the largest presence of immigrants in Italy: foreigners account for 18.1% of its workforce. In general, the majority (53.4%) of foreign dependent workers are employed by small firms (up to 10 employees), while only 15.7% work for firms with more than 50 employees. The most common job category among foreign employees is that of blue-collar worker (89.9%), while white-collars amount to only 7.3% and apprentices to 1.2%. (Rapporto Annuale sull'Economia dell'Immigrazione, 2011).

10. Contradictory class mobility involves a decline in social status but an increase in economic status.

11. Also some Ecuadorian interviewees (only the better-educated ones) reported the outsourcing of some domestic tasks in recognition of the need to manage the work-life balance.

12. See on this Vianello (2009).