[Brussels, 05 April 2012] Targeted national and local policies make a difference in integrating migrant women to the labour market, reveals a new study by the European Women’s Lobby and the European Network of Migrant Women. These policies include, among other things, developing efficient systems for recognition of qualifications obtained by migrant women in third countries and the possibility of top-up training opportunities for those lacking certain competencies.
The study points out that too many well-qualified migrant women are employed in low paid jobs, especially in cleaning and caring. This means that despite the importance of these jobs, currently societies do not fully benefit of migrant women’s skills and qualifications.
The comparative report, entitled ‘
Equal Rights. Equal Voices. Migrant women’s integration in the labour market in six European cities: a comparative approach‘, helps us to understand the characteristics and particularities of the integration process of migrant’s women in EU in the field of employment and education.
It assesses the current situation and progress on migrant women’s integration into the labour market based on studies of six European Union (EU) cities: Athens, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Madrid and Marseille. The study looks at the specific impact that local, regional and national integration policies have had on migrant women’s employment. It aims at opening up a debate on the specific gendered impact of integration policies, especially concerning their experiences of participation in the labour market.
Based on the analysis of what has already been done and of the still existing huge gaps, the study proposes how legislation and other policies could be made more effective for the benfit of migrant women and as a consequence the whole society– both at the EU level and at national level.
The findings of the EWL and ENoMW’s study can help us to reach an increase of skilled migrant women into appropriate work and to make the formal labour market more accessible for less- qualified migrant women.
enomw and ewl research study migrant women s access to labourmarket march 2012
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