We met with the workers of Adiskidetuak Intercultural Association. The Association is a non-profit association that informs migrants on their (human and labour) rights, gives support and assessment of legal issues. We learned about their clients:

Most of the migrants served by the Adiskidetuak Intercultural Association correspond to the following profile:

  • Central American women, mainly from Nicaragua, between 40 and 49 years of age, with secondary education, with at least one child under their care and, mostly, single-parent families.

Regarding the difficulties encountered in social integration, both women and men agree on the following aspects:

  • Access to housing
  • Obtaining the residence and work permit
  • Socio-cultural difficulties

Women usually prefer/end up working in home care and cleaning, and men in agriculture jobs. Both groups tend to suffer precarious work, and, in the case of women also sexual abuse and labour exploitation. According to their experience, most women working in the care sector are exploited in some way: not payed enough, don’t have holidays, don’t have enough free days, work many hours more than they should.

Most migrant care workers are not trained in the care field. But the association observed, that recently there are migrating more migrants with higher education. Some training providers are offering certified trainings at a high price but low quality, seems to take advantage of the training need of women.