Migrant women workers: Analysis of low skilled jobs in the tourism industry.
Author: Adrianna Musial
0 Commentries
Keywords: Migrant, Women, Hospitality, Tourism, Low-skilled, Jobs, Hotels, Housekeeping
This report will be discussing migrant women within low skilled jobs; the report will illustrate different industries within the tourism and hospitality sector and the number of migrants in them. Nonetheless, the report will mainly focus on the hotel industry and the low-skilled jobs within that sector. Within the hotel industry, there are many low-skilled jobs, such as housekeeping, waitress, reception, this report will analyse the housekeeping side of hotel work.
It has been stated that there are many different reasons why individuals leave their country of origin, some examples are that they do want a better life for themselves and their families, but in some cases, individuals fee the country because of crimes, violence and overall not being safe for them. In a way, organisations can see this as an advantage because the migrants will most likely want any job going, to provide for themselves and others. Janta et al., 2011 mentioned that certain businesses within the hospitality sector prefer to hire migrant workers rather than British workers. There are many factors for that that such as migrant women have a better work ethic, a positive attitude, and in some cases more skills. In 2017 there were 500,000 migrants employed in low skilled jobs, where a large amount of that were women migrants. There is still discrimination against women workers and there is a higher number of males in higher positions, such as managerial positions, this is why there is such a high number of migrant women working within the low-skilled sector jobs.
Authors Rydzik and Anitha, 2019 state that the women migrant housekeepers that worked at certain hotels, got more rooms to clean than the English housekeepers.
This could be described as discrimination towards the women migrant workers, this supports the evidence from Janta et al., where mentioned that business prefers migrant workers. If migrant workers work faster and do a better job, unfortunately, they will get more rooms to clean, which will benefit the company, as they will not have to hire as many housekeepers. Moreover, migrant women usually get paid less for their job, which again saves the organisation money. Overall certain business does discriminate the migrant women, due to the fact they are too scared to stand up for themselves in fear they will lose their job and will not be able to support themselves and their family. Not only this but because in a lot of the situations, there is a language barrier, therefore the migrant women cannot stand up for themselves.
A large number of work in the hotel industry is sexualised, due to the fact 65% of hotels employ more women than men for both visible and invisible sides of the hotel (Markova et al., 2016). The visible side is the reception, waitressing while the invisible is housekeeping. When it comes to jobs such as waitressing and housekeeping, a large number of migrant women is employed in these sectors, it could be said that more women are in these jobs because some people are still an old-fashioned stereotype. Back in the days, it was the women’s job, to clean the house, cook for their husband, basically cater everything for the husband. Therefore, this could be why people see jobs like that as women's jobs, which is why more women are in these jobs. Especially migrant women, because a lot of them when they come to the UK, are usually classes as non-skilled, therefore will go into low-skilled jobs.
Overall, there is a large number of migrant women working in different low-skilled sectors within the tourism and hospitality sector. There are different reasons for it, mainly because of them being migrant women as well as the language barrier in some cases. If migrant women do have poor language skills, they are more than likely going to be working in a non-visible sector such as housekeeping as they will not have to communicate with others. However, this will not help them develop their language skills and are more than likely not going to progress within the job. Migrant women do get discriminated against a lot due to the fact they are migrants and they are women workers, which does need to stop in the workplace.
References
Janta, H. Ladkin, A. Brown, L. Lugosi, P. (2011) Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK. Tourism Management. 1006-16. Available at: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0261517710001718?token=1B76A45639412F4828BFD338EBF17DD673361B84E1F50B0C48DAE49CAA3DFC40C25B3F439E5F48A5F1BD7FEBDE9EACE7 [Accessed 1st May 2020].
Markova, E. Paraskevopoulu, A. Williams, M, A. Shaw, G. (2016) Migrant workers in small London hotels: Employment, recruitment and distribution. European Urban and Regional Studies. 23(3) 410. Available at: chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0969776413513913?casa_token=TnzLhMg6SA4AAAAA:fuzXoq5ijU1Eu2GFbIDccNwZQ_cFH7jmQco43WMNfEn8ivTQX_2qS1yuWJNoMN2QvoNqho4gVri3MQ [Accessed 29th April 2020].
Rydzik, A. Anitha, S. (2019) Conceptualising the agency of migrant women workers: Resilience, reworking and resistance. Work, Employment and Society. Available at: chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/37125/1/Conceptualising%20the%20agency%20of%20migrant%20women%20workers_Accepted%20version.pdf [Accessed 1st May 2020].
This report will be discussing migrant women within low skilled jobs; the report will illustrate different industries within the tourism and hospitality sector and the number of migrants in them. Nonetheless, the report will mainly focus on the hotel industry and the low-skilled jobs within that sector. Within the hotel industry, there are many low-skilled jobs, such as housekeeping, waitress, reception, this report will analyse the housekeeping side of hotel work.
It has been stated that there are many different reasons why individuals leave their country of origin, some examples are that they do want a better life for themselves and their families, but in some cases, individuals fee the country because of crimes, violence and overall not being safe for them. In a way, organisations can see this as an advantage because the migrants will most likely want any job going, to provide for themselves and others. Janta et al., 2011 mentioned that certain businesses within the hospitality sector prefer to hire migrant workers rather than British workers. There are many factors for that that such as migrant women have a better work ethic, a positive attitude, and in some cases more skills. In 2017 there were 500,000 migrants employed in low skilled jobs, where a large amount of that were women migrants. There is still discrimination against women workers and there is a higher number of males in higher positions, such as managerial positions, this is why there is such a high number of migrant women working within the low-skilled sector jobs.
Authors Rydzik and Anitha, 2019 state that the women migrant housekeepers that worked at certain hotels, got more rooms to clean than the English housekeepers.
This could be described as discrimination towards the women migrant workers, this supports the evidence from Janta et al., where mentioned that business prefers migrant workers. If migrant workers work faster and do a better job, unfortunately, they will get more rooms to clean, which will benefit the company, as they will not have to hire as many housekeepers. Moreover, migrant women usually get paid less for their job, which again saves the organisation money. Overall certain business does discriminate the migrant women, due to the fact they are too scared to stand up for themselves in fear they will lose their job and will not be able to support themselves and their family. Not only this but because in a lot of the situations, there is a language barrier, therefore the migrant women cannot stand up for themselves.
A large number of work in the hotel industry is sexualised, due to the fact 65% of hotels employ more women than men for both visible and invisible sides of the hotel (Markova et al., 2016). The visible side is the reception, waitressing while the invisible is housekeeping. When it comes to jobs such as waitressing and housekeeping, a large number of migrant women is employed in these sectors, it could be said that more women are in these jobs because some people are still an old-fashioned stereotype. Back in the days, it was the women’s job, to clean the house, cook for their husband, basically cater everything for the husband. Therefore, this could be why people see jobs like that as women's jobs, which is why more women are in these jobs. Especially migrant women, because a lot of them when they come to the UK, are usually classes as non-skilled, therefore will go into low-skilled jobs.
Overall, there is a large number of migrant women working in different low-skilled sectors within the tourism and hospitality sector. There are different reasons for it, mainly because of them being migrant women as well as the language barrier in some cases. If migrant women do have poor language skills, they are more than likely going to be working in a non-visible sector such as housekeeping as they will not have to communicate with others. However, this will not help them develop their language skills and are more than likely not going to progress within the job. Migrant women do get discriminated against a lot due to the fact they are migrants and they are women workers, which does need to stop in the workplace.
References
Janta, H. Ladkin, A. Brown, L. Lugosi, P. (2011) Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK. Tourism Management. 1006-16. Available at: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0261517710001718?token=1B76A45639412F4828BFD338EBF17DD673361B84E1F50B0C48DAE49CAA3DFC40C25B3F439E5F48A5F1BD7FEBDE9EACE7 [Accessed 1st May 2020].
Markova, E. Paraskevopoulu, A. Williams, M, A. Shaw, G. (2016) Migrant workers in small London hotels: Employment, recruitment and distribution. European Urban and Regional Studies. 23(3) 410. Available at: chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0969776413513913?casa_token=TnzLhMg6SA4AAAAA:fuzXoq5ijU1Eu2GFbIDccNwZQ_cFH7jmQco43WMNfEn8ivTQX_2qS1yuWJNoMN2QvoNqho4gVri3MQ [Accessed 29th April 2020].
Rydzik, A. Anitha, S. (2019) Conceptualising the agency of migrant women workers: Resilience, reworking and resistance. Work, Employment and Society. Available at: chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/37125/1/Conceptualising%20the%20agency%20of%20migrant%20women%20workers_Accepted%20version.pdf [Accessed 1st May 2020].