Volume 49, Issue 7 pp. 2905-2921
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Psychosocial benefits and costs of activism among female migrant domestic workers in southern Spain

Juan C. Aceros

Corresponding Author

Juan C. Aceros

Escuela de Trabajo Social, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia

Correspondence Juan C. Aceros, Escuela de Trabajo Social, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Carrera 27 calle 9, Bucaramanga 680002, Colombia.

Email: [email protected]

Search for more papers by this author
Tatiana Duque

Tatiana Duque

Department of Social Psychology, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

Search for more papers by this author
Virginia Paloma

Virginia Paloma

Department of Social Psychology, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 07 June 2021
Citations: 6

Abstract

Economic migrant women often experience oppressive living and working conditions in the receiving societies. Activism is a liberatory behavior these women may employ to transform such situations. This study explores the activism experience of female migrant domestic workers from Latin America settled in southern Spain, in terms of its psychosocial benefits and costs. A purposeful sample of eleven activist migrant women engaged in a grassroots organization of domestic workers and eight members of social organizations supporting their activities were interviewed in-depth individually. After a qualitative content analysis approach to the data, the study presents activism as a community engagement behavior with benefits such as the strengthening of social ties, sense of community, opportunities for sharing stories of oppression, and psychological empowerment. Activism also emerged as a demanding activity requiring high investments in time by activists and producing interpersonal conflicts, hopelessness, and burnout in some cases. Such costs may pose limits to its potential to produce well-being and liberation, implying challenges for research, intervention, and activism sustainability.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.