Women face significant disadvantages in the
European
labor market .
They are less likely to be employed, are employed in less economically rewarding jobs, and earn lower wages than men even when they are in comparable jobs.
These gender gaps are exacerbated for
immigrant women
, who face penalties on the labor market higher than those of male migrants.
Only one in two immigrant women works in Italy.
This is what emerges from the sixth
annual report on the economic integration of immigrants in Europe
, edited by Tommaso Frattini with Irene Solmone, published by the Migration Observatory of the Luca d'Agliano Study Center (LdA) and the Carlo Alberto College Foundation (CCA) of Turin.
Women represent
more than half
of the total immigrant population in Europe (52%) and, among the European countries with a significant foreign presence, Italy is the one with the highest percentage of women out of the total immigrant population (55%).
Higher
education
of immigrant women compared to men is a characteristic of most European countries, even if the education of migrant men and women is strongly correlated: the countries of destination that receive the most educated women, also welcome the most educated men, and vice versa .
Despite the better level of education, in most European countries immigrant women have a lower probability of employment than immigrant men (-13.6%).
A situation that has not changed in the last ten years.
Immigrant women in Europe are employed much more frequently than immigrant men in low-paid and low-skilled jobs.
They mainly carry out
elementary occupations
(24% against 14% for immigrant men), particularly in
cleaning jobs
(almost one in 5 against 2% for immigrant men).
Also because of this,
immigrant women earn less and their incomes are among the lowest of national ones
.
As it worsens further in Italy.
Not only are the levels of education of immigrants in Italy below the European average (and among the lowest in Europe, such as those of native Italians), but they have not improved at all in the last decade and a half.
Less than a fifth (17%) of immigrant women in Italy have a tertiary education and, among the areas of origin, this share is lower among African women (9% compared to 23% in Europe).
Employment rates between immigrant women and Italian women are very similar and are both among the lowest in Europe.
Not only that, the gap between the employment rates between immigrant men and women is among the highest in Europe and has even grown in the last 5 years: only one immigrant woman out of two works in Italy.
Immigrant women in Italy are considerably poorer than the European average: in Europe half of immigrant women are in the poorest 30%, in Italy half are in the poorest 20%.
This is because they are employed in particular in elementary jobs (low-skilled, low-paying jobs) in Italy and other southern European countries: around one third of immigrant women in Italy, Greece and Spain are employed in elementary work (against 24 % in Europe).
Finally, one in 10 immigrant women in Europe carries out care work.
