Labor trajectories of migrant domestic workers in Argentina

Abstract

Introduction: Research has shown that the permanence of the migrant population in Argentina can generate certain improvements in their living conditions. The article is developed from the analysis of the diverse trajectories that migrant women, domestic workers, have when they remain in the country.

Objective: The article proposes to reconstruct, in retrospect, the different movements in the trajectories of migrant women, both inside and outside the domestic work sector. It examines the limitations and possibilities of the local context and the meanings that migrant domestic workers give to labor circulations.

Methodology: The article is based on a qualitative research developed in AMBA and Córdoba, that includes 40 in-depth interviews with migrant women who are or were domestic workers at some point in their labor trajectories.

Results: Three types of mobility are considered: horizontal mobility within domestic sector, intermittent inputs and outputs within the sector, and the ultimate exit. In each case, the article emphasizes the viewpoints of the workers themselves.

Conclusions: The results show the importance of the linkage between paid and unpaid domestic work. It also sets out three main issues: firstly, that leaving the domestic work does not always mean «improving» from the perspective of the workers themselves; secondly, that one can «improve» by being a domestic worker; and, thirdly, that there are trajectories of upward social mobility among migrant domestic workers.