Explanatory statement: Gender impact of the economic and financial crisis (Part 3 of 3)
Migration - the financial and economic crisis has exacerbated the vulnerability of migrant workers and their families
Particular attention must be given to immigrant women who make up approximately 54% of the total number of immigrants in the European Union.
The financial/economic crisis has exacerbated the vulnerability of migrant women and their families and there is increasing evidence of how migrants are affected by this crisis. There is evidence, also from the experience of previous situations of crisis, that women and children are disproportionately affected. For example, girls are the first to be withdrawn from school and violence against women and children tends to intensify in time of economic hardship.
The lack of care policies and infrastructures has led to an increase in female migrant domestic workers filling these gaps in private homes without access to social and work-related protection and benefits (and often without any legal status because of the national migration regimes.
Discriminatory practices are not only a human rights concern but also obstacles to the inclusion, acceptance and integration of migrants in host countries. Conversely, human rights based regulations and policies which promote access to decent work, health care, education and adequate housing are important not only for the protection of migrants’ human rights, but also for their social inclusion and integration. Another challenge is to ensure that migrants’ human rights, more generally, are not undermined in the context of the economic crisis.
Opportunities in policy responses and recovery plans
The responses to the recession at the European and national level also represent an opportunity and transformational moment to promote gender equality. A gender sensitive analysis at this moment also has the advantage of avoiding unintended consequences of ineffective policy or unintended outcomes. Investment in social infrastructure is an opportunity to modernise
'Green jobs' have the potential to become a key growth segment of future European labour market, already today more than 20 million jobs in the European Union can be considered as 'green' (10% of total employment), and recent evidence shows that jobs in the renewable energy sector alone have a potential to double to 2.8 million by 2020,
The ecological conversion of the economy and the transition from so-called 'sunset industries' to low-carbon economy will create a huge demand for workers in skilled trades or professions. Filling the green collar jobs will require adequate training programs, re-training and education programmes
Yet looking at the huge amount of studies available we discover that green jobs are almost entirely male dominated, especially in the alternative energy area. Women are strongly under-represented in the renewable sector and especially in science and technology-intensive jobs'.
A fair, just and equitable ecological conversion cannot afford women's exclusion from the transition to the green economy, i.e. certain trades and professions, training and re-training. The EU Commission also recognised that 'we need women in exactly the same sort of jobs as men'. Thus without a focused effort, women will be chronically under-represented in or even excluded from the green economy and green collar jobs.
As equality between citizens is one of the
The financial and economic crisis provides us with a huge opportunity to develop responses and perspectives and identify policy spaces for intervention and alternative solutions.
Veure també:
Informe Romeva sobre Gènere i Crisi: Introducció (Part 1 de 3)
Informe Romeva sobre Gènere i Crisi: Introducció (Part 2 de 3)
