Domestic Work: A Trap or a Tramp to Women Migrants' Labour Integration in Host Countries?

Care and domestic work (CDW) is frequently characterised as “work like no other” (Blacket et al., 2011), predominantly performed by women and marked by isolation, undervaluation, and precarious conditions. In recent decades, CDW has become a key entry point into the labour market for migrant women in developed countries (Fernandez Macías, 2015). This raises a critical question: does CDW become a trap, confining migrants to precarious jobs while natives advance in their labour status, or does it serve as a stepping stone to better opportunities?

This study explores the role of CDW in shaping migrants’ labour pathways and its complementarity with natives’ labour participation, analysing the case of Spain. Using data from the European Labour Force Survey (2004-2022) and drawing on theories of labour market segmentation and complementarity, we employ cohort analysis and multivariate models to examine whether CDW remains a trap for migrant workers or enables their upward mobility compared to natives, considering the evolution of these trends across multiple economic cycles.

The analysis centres on three dimensions: the influence of country of origin on women’s occupational distribution, the diverging labour trajectories between migrants and natives over time, and the complementary dynamics between these groups in the labour market. By addressing these factors, the study contributes to existing literature by offering new theoretical and empirical insights into the evolving interplay between migrant and native women in the labour market, gendered ethno-stratification and growing class inequalities among women from a dynamic and intersectional perspective.