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9 Dominican Women, Heads of Households in Spain LAURA OSO CASAS Introduction In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Southern Europe developed into a new migratory space for immigrant reception. This new space is characterized mainly by the presence of female migratory flows in response to a demand for labor to fill unskilled and poorly paid jobs in the service sector. Unlike industrial activity , domestic service, the catering industry, personal services, and sex work cannot be exported, which leads to a demand for foreign labor and the development of female migratory flows of an economic nature. Parallel to this phenomenon is the international increase in the number of female household heads, or, to put it another way, households that are financially supported by women. The incorporation of immigrant women into the labor market in the receiving countries is often the result of a household-survival or social-mobility strategy in which the woman becomes the principal breadwinner in the transnational household. The aim of this chapter is to analyze migration to Spain by Dominican women from the perspective of female heads of households and their integration and social-mobility strategies.1 To do so, I will analyze and interpret qualitative data obtained from in-depth individual and group interviews and discussion groups made up of female Dominican immigrants in Spain held during the course of various periods of research I have undertaken. The first of Laura Oso Casas / 209 these took place in 1992, a period characterized by the entrance of large numbers of Dominican immigrants into Spain. The fieldwork was carried out mainly in the borough of Aravaca, Madrid (Oso Casas 1997; Oso Casas and Machín Herranz 1993). The second period of research was undertaken between 1996 and 1997 within the context of a comparative study of immigrant female household heads of varying nationalities (Oso 1998). Finally, data have been taken from in-depth interviews held with Dominican women as part of research carried out into irregular female immigrants for Spain’s Instituto de la Mujer (Institute for Women) in 2000 (Oso 2000) and ongoing research into immigrant women and ethnic business (Oso 2003).2 First, I will reveal the social-mobility strategies of immigrant Dominican women in Spain by determining whether they are of an individual or family nature. I will then analyze the integration and social-mobility strategies in the receiving society, looking first at these women’s occupational strategies (live-in or live-out domestic service). This will be followed by a study of the residential, educational, and marital social-mobility strategies of Dominican women in Spain. Finally, I will assess the impact of these integration and social-mobility strategies on actual social progression, as well as on the role and socioeconomic status of Dominican female household heads in the transnational household. My theoretical approach to Dominican immigration in Spain from the perspective of female-headed households and these women’s integration and social-mobility strategies does not intend to restrict its vision to that of the rational individual. The aim is to draw attention to the fact that these strategies are frequently family-oriented and therefore far from being purely rational decisions. Indeed, imaginary and symbolic components have a considerable impact on strategic behavior. Migratory projects that impel Dominican women to migrate do not necessarily result in corresponding social trajectories . And it is here that my principal interest lies—namely, in highlighting how the goals that are set may result in highly differing social trajectories and on occasion may be quite the opposite of those to which the women aspired. These directional changes may result from structural factors, changes in initial strategies, the strategies of other social actors in the receiving context and the country of origin, or the individual’s position in the life cycle. My intention is to highlight the conflicting interests of the various social actors (immigrant women, family members in the country of origin, employers, and the autochthonous population, among others), as well as those that exist between the strategies employed by Dominican female immigrants in Spain for the purposes of integration into the receiving society and the social mobility of the transnational household. 210 / Dominican Women, Heads of Households in Spain Economically Motivated Female Migratory Flows into Spain Spain began to acquire the status of an immigrant-receiving context from the early 1980s onward. By the end of the 1990s, this status had become firmly established. In just over sixteen years, between 1991 and 2007, the total number of...

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