Female migrant workers in European labour markets

The statistics on female migrant workers in Europe

This population is as large as it is diverse. There were 14.9 million female immigrants in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) in 2009, constituting 47.3 percent of the foreign-born population. The majority (63.2 percent; or 9.4 million) of female migrants in the European Union are not from Europe themselves, and a large part of these third-country nationals are from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

New female migrants face significant challenges to economic and social integration

Among immigrants in Europe, most of those who have arrived in the last 20 or so years are economic migrants, having come voluntarily (or in some cases, been trafficked) to enter the labour market. As many as 3.8 to 6 million are thought to be unauthorized immigrants, half of them female, and there are 700,000 female refugees making new livelihoods for themselves and their families throughout Europe. In contrast to migrant women who entered European countries in previous immigration flows and were able to integrate into the regulated labour market with relative ease, new female migrants face significant challenges to economic and social integration. These women migrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and with the expansion of the European Union, and many have encountered closed labour markets with job openings primarily in marginal, irregular sectors of the economy.

Female migrant workers are educated but they work in gendered labour markets

The diverse ways in which these women enter their destination countries affects the opportunities they have and, by extension, how they integrate into the labour markets where they live. Although many of the new female migrants are well educated, they find work for the most part in the gendered labor markets of domestic and care work, the services industry, and commercial sex work.

Integration policy remains a national-level responsibility for individual EU countries

Integration policy remains a national-level responsibility for individual EU countries, but has become increasingly important at the supranational level, where efforts to develop a common approach to immigrant integration are underway. The EU Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has focused some attention on migrant women as an important target group.

Integration of Female Immigrants in Labor Market and Society: Policy Assessment and Policy Recommendations

 In an effort to inform integration policy, the European Union funded the research project Integration of Female Immigrants in Labor Market and Society: Policy Assessment and Policy Recommendations (FeMiPol), which assessed how social and labor market policies — including integration and migration policies — affect new female migrants. This piece is based on research carried out for this project, and focuses on the characteristics of migrant women, their current activity in labor markets, and the policies that help and hinder their economic integration. This research centered especially on domestic workers, prostitutes, and victims of trafficking — a focus that is also apparent in this article.