ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Migration and Society
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1636127
This article is part of the Research TopicLabour and Health of Undocumented Migrant Women: Condition, Trends and Critical IssuesView all articles
Labour roots and migration routes: Precarious employment as driver of irregular migration amongst women workers
Provisionally accepted
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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This paper examines how Spain's immigration policy prioritises legal and administrative stability, aiming to make regular status the norm. While this results in a relatively low number of non-EU migrants in irregular situations, even those with legal status remain at constant risk of falling into irregularity, as residence and work permits are typically tied to one-year employment contracts. The loss of formal employment thus creates ongoing vulnerability to administrative exclusion. Focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant women, the article explores the challenges they face in maintaining legal status or navigating irregularity under precarious conditions. Drawing on the narratives of eight women, it analyses the structural inequalities affecting access to employment and housing, shaped largely by immigration law. Finally, the article highlights collective self-management initiatives that emerged to address material and psychosocial needs during the pandemic.
Keywords: Migrant women, Precarious employment, social exclusion, Psychosocial impact, Health and housing, Marginalization
Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lázaro Castellanos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rosa Lázaro Castellanos, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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