EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Working at home. Colour in work

Working at home. Colour in work - Amsterdam

Introduction

Research has shown that many Turkish and Moroccan women experience personal and cultural obstacles to participating in the labour market.

Problem

The combination of work and care for Turkish and Moroccan women is made easier by together developing high-quality advisory and teleworking jobs.

Description

Research has shown that many Turkish and Moroccan women experience personal and cultural obstacles to participating in the labour market. Many of these women do not like crèches, as they usually do not have an Islamic character. Moreover, the division of roles in the household and the childcare obligations of these women form a barrier. In addition, many such families object to their women working intensively together with men who are not related to them.

Based on the notion that performing paid work means that women in many cases can participate socially and earn an income thereby acquiring greater freedoms of choice, "Kleur in 't werk" ("Colour in work") started the project "Working at home".

Approach

The project included the following steps:

Kleur in ´t werk employed eight immigrant women who could not participate in the labour process owing to cultural and religious barriers to see if they could overcome these obstacles through home teleworking.
The project laid the foundation stone for a future model for the participation of groups of immigrant women who say they cannot participate owing to personal and/or cultural factors.

Results

Kleur in 't werk created useful work for a group of eight immigrant women.
The training was done partly at home and party centrally at the office of Kleur in 't werk.
All the women thought it was a good way of working. They could look after their own children while working.

Things learnt:

The public recruitment of immigrant women was poor. Recruitment via community centres, word of mouth and family members was more successful.
After a period of getting used to the idea, the relatives of the participants also accepted this way of working.
The ideal type of work for this target group was relatively simple work and clearly defined tasks with short deadlines.

Financing

The project received a subsidy of € 81,669.

Contact info

Stichting Kleur in 't Werk
Mr. E. van Schravendijk and Mr. S. Wongsomenggolo, tel. +31 20 6888322

Project start date

01/02/2000

Links

Stichting Kleur in 't werk (in Dutch)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Working patterns

Keywords

Remote working