Migrant Women: Is Migration a Blessing or a Handicap?: Situation of Migrant Women in Switzerland

Author(s) : Katharina Ley

Source : http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1981.tb00215.x

Abstract:

The deterioration of the employment situation in the southern countries has in recent years adversely affected the traditional image of the emigrant who wanted to

earn a lot of money quickly and return home as soon as possible. The insecurity of

emigration – to Switzerland, for example – is now accompanied by insecurity of

existence after a planned or early return. This dual insecurity and the ambivalent

attitude to emigration and subsequent return home should be the essential features

which currently determine the awareness and behaviour of emigrants. These essential features are, in my opinion, found in both men and women.

The emigration of women represents a secondary form of emigration. Originally,

it was mainly men who came to work in Switzerland, but subsequently their daugh-

ters, sisters and wives began to emigrate with them. Since the percentage of women’s earnings is low in the regions from which they originate (about 10-15 per cent in Southern Italy and Southern Spain as opposed to about 30 per cent in Switzerland), the role of a woman as housewife, mother and, if necessary, family assistant is particularly important in those regions. Furthermore, centuries of exploitation and the harsh demands of everyday life in those regions have made the family the essential unit and created a tendency to regard as hostile the environment outside the family.