Based on ethnographic observation and Claudia Goldin's book “Career and Family”, today's article briefly outlines important indicators of the delicate relation between gender, career and migration - pt I.
A few years ago, in a conversation with a friend, we were discussing life in Europe and the pros and cons of leaving Brazil to spend “some time abroad”. I was contemplating the idea of leaving the country at that time; she, who is married to a German man, told me that she preferred staying in Brazil to moving to Germany.
She went on to explain that her decision was related to her career: that her work and future desires were in Brazil, and not in Germany.
With a decision weighed equally by she and her husband, without a career sacrifice made unilaterally by the woman (as it is in most cases), this is a story that, in a very particular way, is the exception that confirms the rule about career and family decisions.
Career and Family
In fact, in the book Career and Family by economist Claudia Goldin, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her extensive work on gender and career, the author opens her study with a discussion about the
direct relationship between the imbalance in the division of family care tasks and career progression,
and the extent to which the husband's career is optimized for better opportunities than the wife's - or in the case of same-sex relationships, regardless of gender, career major gaps also lie in the inequality of the division of care tasks.
The author's argument grounds the type of work that men and women prioritize, as when “balancing” career and family. While the husband focus on long hours and exclusive dedication, the wife, driven by the imbalance of the division of care work and family, apply themselves to more flexible jobs - such as part-time positions - which in turn open up fewer possibilities for promotion, contacts, travel and access to expanded work networks and opportunities.
Although it is difficult to assess entirely the frictions between family and career in a migratory context, some points stand out and affect couples with or without children:
a career that is neither fruitful nor established, the inequality between so-called productive work, and precarious care work, the time spent dwelling through the system,
prioritizing a partner's career over one's own, the naturalized inequality of tasks of care directed to women, bureaucratic and vertical issues,
markers such as class and race, unknown cultural codes, the challenges of learning the local language, poor access to networking and work opportunities capital,
as well as high and alienating expectations of life in a substantially more prosperous country,
function as indicators that help us to elaborate - if not understand - difficulties that arise in the fruition and establishment of women's careers, especially taking into account a migratory context.
Difficult pathways
An interesting example precisely around migration comes from an informal conversation with a dear Brazilian colleague living in Berlin. She was telling me about her career and area of specialisation, especially her long years of studies and of having a successful career in Brazil.
After consulting the Agentur für Arbeit, the German office for labour, she was told her expertise and many years of experience were not “equivalent” according to German regulations. Therefore, they were not recognized for work in the country, and she could not pick up from where she left, in terms of her carrer, upon leaving Brazil and moving to Germany with her husband.
In this case, there are at least two major losses: for the country, Germany, as it closes itself off to new opportunities, new expertise and knowledge;
and my dear colleague who, unable to continue her career, finds herself between a volunteer job - earning her 200 euros a month for 20 hours of work a week - and looking after her children and other care tasks at home.
At the same time, her husband's career remains secure and established at a renowned German institution. The context of the country where one migrates to also plays a major part in widening the gap between the family members who will pursue a productive career and those who, due to vertical and systematic frictions, might only remain in care work.
Concluding
As a topic of great relevance in social, feminist and economic studies, care work remains a key element when thinking about career and gender. This is also true regarding migration, when even bigger horizontal and vertical structures are at play.
Please send me an e-mail at natalia@janainas.org with your experience or thoughts on family, migration and career, and I'll see you in two weeks,
Natalia Pais Fornari
Perspectiva
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