Ethnicisation and Domesticisation: The Impact of Care, Gender and Migration Regimes on Paid Domestic Work in Europe (Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship) 3031160401, 9783031160400

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MIGRATION, DIASPORAS AND CITIZENSHIP

Ethnicisation and Domesticisation The Impact of Care, Gender and Migration Regimes on Paid Domestic Work in Europe Chiara Giordano

Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series Editors

Olga Jubany Department of Social Anthropology Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain Saskia Sassen Department of Sociology and Committee on Global Thought Columbia University New York, NY, USA

For over twenty years, the Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship series has contributed to cross-disciplinary empirical and theoretical debates on migration processes, serving as a critical forum for and problematising the main issues around the global movement and circulation of people. Grounded in both local and global accounts, the Series firstly focuses on theconceptualisation and dynamics of complex contemporary national and transnational drivers behind movements and forced displacements. Secondly, it explores the nexus of migration, diversity and identity , incorporating considerations of intersectionality, super-diversity, social polarization and identification processes to examine migration through the various intersections of racialized identities, ethnicity, class, gender, age, disability and other oppressions. Thirdly, the Series critically engages the emerging challenges presented by reconfigured borders and boundaries : state politicization of migration, sovereignty, security, transborder regulations, human trade and ecology, and other imperatives that transgress geopolitical territorial borders to raise dilemmas about contemporary movements and social drivers. Editorial Board: Brenda Yeoh Saw Ai (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Fabio Perocco (Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, Italy) Rita Segato (Universidade de Brasília, Brazil) Carlos Vargas (University of Oxford, UK) Ajmal Hussain (University of Warwick, UK).

Chiara Giordano

Ethnicisation and Domesticisation The Impact of Care, Gender and Migration Regimes on Paid Domestic Work in Europe

Chiara Giordano Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium

ISSN 2662-2602     ISSN 2662-2610 (electronic) Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship ISBN 978-3-031-16040-0    ISBN 978-3-031-16041-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16041-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover image © Gino‘s Premium Images / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To Alex, Emiliano and Giacomo

Preface

I was in the first year of my PhD, flying back and forth from Brussels to Milan to attend the classes foreseen in preparation for the research. I already knew what my research interests were, but never had I wondered about the reasons for being specifically interested in domestic work. On one of these long journeys that for me started in the middle of the night and ended at rush hour on the shuttle that took me from Orio al Serio airport to the centre of Milan, stuck on the motorway in the middle of traffic, I found myself observing for a few minutes a huge advertising sign, right there in front of my eyes. It was the advertisement of a private company offering cleaning services to companies and to private households. The name of the company was Cinderella (in English). Two things struck me about this name. First, it was the violence of the message, the reference to servitude, written in black and white in such an unsubtle way. The fact that domestic work was so blatantly associated with servitude, and even advertised as such, struck me for its brutality, but also made me think that perhaps this marketing strategy was not so outlandish and that perhaps the target audience of this advertisement was really looking for its own private Cinderella. The second thing that struck me was that it made me think of the only time in my life when I had felt like a little Cinderella myself. And that was when, after my first year of university, I had worked for a few months as an au pair in a suburb of Northern London. The memory of those very long days, starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 11 p.m., after cleaning and polishing every corner of the house, and looking after the three children (one of whom was a six-month-old baby) from morning to night, suddenly came vii

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back to me as if it had been yesterday. I had never thought about it, but I really was a Cinderella, at the service of that very wealthy family, a domestic worker in their enchanted castle, free to go out one day per week to meet the army of au pairs and nannies who populated the neighbourhood where I lived and who, like me, couldn’t wait to spend their 20 pound weekly salary to take the metro and go downtown, and choose whether to spend the money on an ice cream, a museum or a beer. I could have thought about the good memories, the moments spent with my new friends, all women and all from abroad, all with their own stories, motivations and ambitions, but also the good moments spent with the children in the second family, after escaping from the first one. Though, that Cinderella name brought back to my mind only the darkest moments, when in the first family I used to fall asleep crying, exhausted, with my hands perpetually chapped and smelling of bleach (because the lady found that with rubber gloves “you don’t clean well”), but above all, hungry (because the lady made sure I only ate two slices of bread per meal, as the rest was “reserved” for the family). I also remembered that following the example of other au pairs and cleaners, I started to use my free afternoon per week to do the ironing for another family, to get some extra money, and that I stopped after the man of the house one day offered to take me back home by car and sexually assaulted me. I never thought this early experience could have contributed to shape my research interests—it was another life, after all—but on second thought, it surely did shape my sensitivity on social justice, on inequalities based on gender, class and ethnic background, but also on the unfairness to which domestic workers (who are women and who are often migrants) are subject during their journey. As a well-educated, privileged white European who had chosen to do this job for a while (because I thought it was the easiest way to learn English), I had myself experienced only one tiny drop of this injustice: I had a life and a future back home, I had alternatives, I had the privilege to choose when to stop this, I had the freedom to escape from it at any moment. But this was not the case for most of the women I met there. They had no freedom, no choice to make, no privilege, no money and their lives were hanging by a thread: the goodwill of their employers, or on the contrary, their dishonesty or even their cruelty. And that advertising sign on the motorway had thrown all this to my face and made me feel anger. Anger for not knowing why domestic workers must be treated like slaves; anger for not knowing why domestic workers have to be women and why they have to be migrants, children of migrants,

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racialised women from the most marginalised social groups; anger for seeing that while some people fight for social justice, other people look for their little Cinderella; anger for being on the privileged side of the world and yet not being able to change this. The truth is that I have not changed any of this, nor will I ever be able to do so. What I did is that I have nourished my commitment to exploring, understanding and fighting against these types of injustice, namely, those faced by migrant women, and especially those with the most fragile status, who almost inevitably find themselves in the domestic service sector. What I present in this book is part of this commitment. I hope that this will make my little contribution to the field, or at least stimulate the interest of other people. Brussels, Belgium

Chiara Giordano

Acknowledgements

This book is the result of the research—reworked and readapted during the years—that I have carried out during my PhD. I will not be able to mention all the people who crossed my path during these years and who contributed, directly or indirectly, to this wonderful journey. I want to express my special thanks to Cinzia Meraviglia, Matteo Gagliolo and Laurie Hanquinet for the immense technical and human help they provided me throughout the years, for their competence and professionalism, for their fantastic insights, for their patience and for always being there to encourage me. Thanks also to Dirk and Andrea, who welcomed me at the GERME in the first place. Thank you, Dirk, for your intellectual generosity and for your precious advice. And of course, I want to warmly thank my colleagues of GERME, who, in the last years, have become my second family, as well as my former colleagues in Milan (and Dottorino), who helped me a lot in the first difficult year of commuting (Brussels–Milan) and who shared with me rooms, food and great times. And finally, I want to thank my friends and my family: my parents, who accept me and love me for what I am; my nonnina, the ideal woman, who passed away some years ago, but who is always in my heart; my two wonderful children, who did everything they could to slow down my work, but who are my daily sunshine, the very love of my life; and Alex, for believing in me and supporting me without hesitation, because nothing would have been possible without him.

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Contents

1 Introduction  1 Part I Paid Domestic Work  21 2 Understanding  Contemporary Domestic Work: Challenges, Continuities and Discontinuities 23 3 Analysis  of Contemporary Paid Domestic Work in Europe: Similarities and Differences Between EU Member States 53 Part II Care, Gender and Migration Regimes 101 4 The Care Regime103 5 The Gender Regime185 6 The Migration Regime223

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Part III The Impact of Care, Gender and Migration Regimes on Domestic Work 273 7 Measuring  the Impact of Care, Gender and Migration Regimes on Migrant Domestic Work275 8 Conclusions323 Annexex337 Index365

List of Figures

Fig. 3.1

Fig. 3.2 Fig. 3.3

Fig. 3.4

Proportion of the domestic sector compared to all other sectors in 24 EU member states. The vertical line is the EU average. The horizontal lines at the end of each bar are the confidence intervals. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland. (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Share of disaggregated activities in the domestic sector in 24 EU member states. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland. (Source: EU-LFS, 2015) Formal and informal domestic workers in eight EU countries. The dark grey bar corresponds to the number of domestic workers based on the EU-LFS 2015. The number of undeclared domestic workers (light grey bar) is calculated based on the estimates of the informal economy in the domestic sector provided in the DGCIS report 2011 (French Ministry of Economy and Industry) and the EU-­LFS 2015. (Source: EU-LFS 2015 and DGCIS Report) Proportion of formal and informal domestic sector compared to all other sectors in eight EU countries. The dark grey bar corresponds to the proportion of regular workers in domestic activities as a share of regular workers in all sectors, based on the EU-LFS 2015 (these data correspond to the data displayed in Fig. 3.1). The light grey bar represents the proportion of the domestic sector as a share of the total employment, when the undeclared work is included both in the domestic sector and in the other sectors. (Sources: EU-LFS 2015, DGCIS [2011], Schneider [2013])

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List of Figures

Fig. 3.5

Fig. 3.6

Fig. 3.7

Fig. 3.8

Proportion of women in the domestic sector in 24 EU member states. The bars represent the proportion of female workers as a share of all workers in the domestic sector. The vertical line is the EU average. The horizontal lines at the end of each bar are the confidence intervals. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland. (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Proportion of migrants (The migrant population is defined using the information on the country of birth and includes only persons born in a country other than that of residence. The EU-LFS provides information about the country of birth aggregated in the following areas: native of own country; NMS3 (3 new member states of 2007 and 2013); NMS13 (10 new member states of 2004); EU15; EFTA countries; other Europe; North Africa; Other Africa; Near Middle East; East Asia; South East Asia; North America; Central America; South America; Australia and Oceania) in the domestic sector in 22 EU member states. The bars represent the proportion of migrant workers, as a share of all workers employed in the domestic sector. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided) and for Germany and Romania (country of birth not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Migrant domestic workers in Europe by country of birth (region). Country of birth:1 = EU15, 2 = new member states (CY, CZ, EE, HU, LT, LV, MT, PL, SK, SI, BG, RO, HR). 4 = EFTA countries (Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein), 5 = other Europe, 6 = North Africa, 7 = other Africa, 8 = Middles East, 9 = South and East Asia, 10 = North America and Oceania, 11 = Central America, 12 = South America. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO not provided) and for Germany and Romania, (country of birth not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Country of birth (by region) of migrant domestic workers in 22 EU member states. Country of birth: 1 = EU15, 2 = new member states (CY, CZ, EE, HU, LT, LV, MT, PL, SK, SI, BG, RO, HR), 4 = EFTA countries (Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein), 5 = other Europe 6 = North Africa, 7 = other Africa, 8 = Middles East, 9 = South and East Asia, 10 = North America and Oceania, 11 = Central America, 12 = South America. Country of birth: 1 = EU15, 2 = new member states (CY, CZ, EE, HU, LT, LV, MT, PL, SK, SI, BG, RO, HR), 4 = EFTA countries (Switzerland, Iceland, Norway,

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Fig. 3.9

Fig. 3.10

Fig. 3.11

Fig. 3.12

Fig. 3.13

Fig. 3.14

Liechtenstein), 5 = other Europe, 6 = North Africa, 7 = other Africa, 8 = Middles East, 9 = South and East Asia, 10 = North America and Oceania, 11 = Central America, 12 = South America. (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Proportion of migrants, second generations (Second generations are defined as individuals born in the country of residence, who have at least one of the two parents born abroad [variables ‘country of birth of mother’ and ‘country of birth of father’]) and natives in the domestic sector in 19 EU member states. The bars represent the proportion of migrants, second generations and natives, as a share of all workers in the domestic sector. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided) and Germany (country of birth and country of birth of mothers and fathers not provided). (Source: EU-LFS ad hoc module 2014) Income (deciles) of domestic workers in Europe. The x-axis corresponds to the income deciles, where ‘decile 1’ represents the lowest and ‘decile 10’ the highest income. The y-axis corresponds to the number of workers. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided) and Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary and Sweden (income not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Distribution of domestic workers and other low-skilled workers by income deciles in 19 EU member states. The x-axis corresponds to the income deciles, where ‘decile 1’ represents the lowest and ‘decile 10’ the highest income. The y-axis corresponds to the number of workers. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided) and Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary and Sweden (income not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Proportion of temporary work in the domestic sector in 24 EU member states. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Proportion of temporary work in the domestic sector and in the other sectors in the 24 EU member states. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015) Proportion of shift work in the domestic sector in the 24 EU member states. Data not available for Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Poland (ISCO code not provided). (Source: EU-LFS 2015)

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List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2 Fig. 4.3 Fig. 4.4 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Fig. 5.4 Fig. 5.5 Fig. 5.6 Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Fig. 6.3 Fig. 6.4 Fig. 6.5 Fig. 6.6 Fig. 6.7 Fig. 6.8 Fig. 6.9 Fig. 6.10 Fig. 6.11 Fig. 6.12 Fig. 7.1

Fig. 7.2

Factor 1—Generosity of care policies 165 Factor 2—(De)familialisation of childcare policies 167 Factor 3 – (De)familialisation of older care policies 171 A typology of care regimes in Europe 174 Gender Equality Index 2017—overall score 206 Gender Equality Index 2017—Subdomain ‘work’ 207 Gender contract index 213 Gender equality and gender contract in Europe 215 A typology of gender regimes in Europe—clusters’ characteristics217 A typology of gender regimes in Europe—clusters’ position 218 Openness in the field of labour migration (external policies) – IMPIC 2010 256 Openness in the field of labour migration (internal policies) – IMPIC 2010 257 Openness in the field of family reunification (external policies) – IMPIC 2010 258 Openness in the field of family reunification (internal policies) – IMPIC 2010 258 Openness of admission policies in Europe – synthetic score IMPIC 2010 260 Integration in the field of labour market mobility – MIPEX 2011 261 Integration in the field of access to nationality – MIPEX 2011 261 Integration in the field of political participation – MIPEX 2011 262 Integration in the field of anti-discrimination – MIPEX 2011 262 Integration policies in Europe – synthetic score MIPEX 2011 264 Typology of migration regimes in Europe 267 Typology of migration regimes in Europe on a Cartesian plane 268 Proportion of domestic workers in the four clusters of care regimes. The horizontal line is the average. The vertical lines at the end of each bar are the confidence intervals. The difference in the proportion of domestic workers compared to all workers in the different clusters is statistically significant (test for equality of proportions: p