Some Experiences of Peruvian and Paraguayan Domestic Workers in the City of São Paulo and the Process of Formalizing Domestic Service in Brazil

• In Event: Trabajo migrante y nuevas y persistentes exclusiones de género, raza y clase

Abstract

In recent years Brazil has become more attractive to immigration. Migrants from the Southern Cone countries constitute a meaningful force to the increase and the diversification of migration flows to Brazil. Despite the numerous studies on migration to Brazil, a gender perspective and a specific experience of migrant workers in the country is still in stealth, both in regard to migration studies in Brazil and to studies on intraregional flows in Latin America. In this article I analyze the insertion of Latin American migrants in the labor market in the city of São Paulo, with emphasis on the integration of these workers in domestic employment. Although internal migration has been a major feature of domestic employment in Brazilian large cities, field research conducted since August 2013 in São Paulo, found some Paraguayan and Peruvian women working in domestic service in this city. I also found that domestic employment is strongly connected with strategies of labor market insertion, especially regarding these two nationalities. During interviews with workers, employers and employment agencies in São Paulo, important issues surfaced about migration to Brazil and domestic employment in brazilian large cities, that have recently gone through deep transformations due to a gradual process of formalization of labor relations.

Author

• Larissa V Barbosa, Université Paris 8 / Universidade de São Paulo