Immigration experience of Latin American working women in Alicante, Spain: an ethnographic study

OBJECTIVE: to describe the experience of Latin American working women regarding immigration, taking into account the expectations and conditions in which this process takes place. METHOD: ethnographic qualitative study. Data collection was performed by means of semi-structured interviews with 24 Latin American immigrant women in Spain. The information collected was triangulated through two focal groups. RESULTS: the expectations of migrant women focus on improving family living conditions. Social support is essential for their settling and to perform daily life activities. They declare they have adapted to the settlement country, although they live with stress. They perceive they have greater sexual freedom and power with their partners but keep greater responsibility in childcare, combining that with the role of working woman. CONCLUSIONS: migrant women play a key role in the survival of households, they build and create new meanings about being a woman, their understanding of life, their social and couple relationships. Such importance is shaped by their expectations and the conditions in which the migration process takes place, as well as their work integration.


Introduction
Female migration from Latin America experienced a sustainable growth from 1960 until the year 2000, from 44.7% to 50.5%, respectively (1) . In Spain, migration flows from Latin America were characterised by a constant female predominance that increased up to 62%, during the period 1992-1996, which was reduced to 53% in the period 2002-2006 (2) . This shows an increasing number of women who decided to migrate as an individual decision or as part of a family survival strategy (so that their family could have a financial means of support), a situation that is added to traditional migration for family regrouping reasons (3) .
In the last decade, women have migrated with the purpose of improving family living conditions (4)(5) , in order to contribute to their children's future, to purchase a home for their family or to set up a business.
What has been described explains how women are migrating independently, looking for work (6) , and shows a feminisation of survival in households (3) .
If we consider migration as a transition process, where people must experience adaptation situations, going from one situation to another, we must consider the aspects that have an influence on this phenomenon, framed in changes of lifestyle, health, interactions and social environments (7) . In this sense, it is important to know the conditions and personal repercussions experienced by migrant women in the destination countries, who are usually placed in working activities related to reproductive care.
The importance of reproduction care lies in the fact that these are activities related to providing food to the family, trying to keep minimum hygiene conditions and attention for the youngest and dependent family members. The fact that the woman provides this care guarantees the creation of rest time for some of the family members: usually men and the youngest, at the expense of the space the woman should enjoy (8) . This care also involves the task of looking after the health of all the family members, as well as the necessary emotional or social support (9) .
Since the incorporation of women to the labour market, the performance of reproductive care has shown a progressive trend towards commercial exploitation (10) . Thus, this care has also become a labour setting, described in the literature as a triply segregated market, with regard to gender, class and ethnic group (11) . Furthermore, they are usually cheap labour, with little free time, deficient socialisation with the work group and little opportunity for labour regulation (4) . Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the experience of Latin American working women regarding immigration, taking into account the expectations and conditions in which this process takes place. Being able to investigate these matters shall allow us to analyse the repercussions and the situations that have an influence on the meaning women give to this experience.

Method
Qualitative study performed under the theoretical approach of symbolic interactionism. This theoretical framework permits understanding how human beings give a meaning to the experiences they live through social interaction, by conditioning their behaviours and responses to everyday situations (12) . In this study, the theoretical principles permitted understanding how the experience of migrant women is shaped from the expectations they have when they migrate, as well as from interaction and the social networks they establish in the destination community. women. The basis of the method used as a foundation for this research was Clifford Geertz's hermeneutic anthropology (13) , conceiving culture as a fabric of facts and phenomena that have meaning. Under this concept, human behaviour is seen as symbolic actions that have meaning and value in social interactions and in the context they belong to.
This study was carried out in the city of Alicante, in the community of Virgen del Remedio, during the months of April and June 2012. Data collection was performed in two periods in order to obtain the theoretical sampling and data saturation. The women who participated in the study were immigrant women, who have been living in Spain for more than five years, with the purpose of guaranteeing a series of significant or relevant events in the personal and working life of these women during the settlement in the destination communities. The total number of participants in this study was 24 women (Table 1). 859 www.eerp.usp.br/rlae González-Juárez L, Noreña-Peña AL, Cibanal-Juan L.
. The data collection techniques were participant observation, semi-structured interview and the focal group. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 13 immigrant women. Access to the interviewed women was through the association "Fundación Alicante Acoge", whose mission is to look after the migrant population.
Interviews took place at the participants' address and, when this was not possible, it was agreed to meet in a public establishment with no noise to gather the information. Interviews were audio recorded, literally  With regard to the data analysis, a manual descriptive analysis was carried out, where the first step in the analysis process was a detailed reading of the information. The principles of the reference theoretical approach guided the construction of emerging categories. Later, the data were segmented, by separately coding the focal groups and the interviews.
Then, the information gathered was compared and contrasted, and significant text excerpts of the study participants' accounts were extracted. This permitted the identification of conceptual similarities between what the participant women observed and expressed.
The analysis process was carried out with the support of the qualitative analysis software Atlas ti, in order to structure the emerging categories and subcategories.
At the beginning of the study, the confidentiality principles, the informed consent and the potential benefits and risks of the research were discussed with the participating women. These principles were considered during the entire research process. The participants were aware of their right to know that the conversations were being recorded and to decide to cancel their participation whenever they deemed appropriate. This study was approved by the University of Alicante, which included its ethical approval.

Findings
From the research, a main category emerged,  Immigration for professional development.

Migration expectations
When they considered immigrating and they took the decision, some of the women had the purpose of studying or having their children study. However, they state it was difficult to reconcile the need to work with the possibility to study. Women choose, organise, reproduce and transform meanings (12) , given that their  During the time they are separated, women relate that they experience sadness and anguish, emotions that are reflected in their state of mind and joy for life.
A factor that calmed them down was being in touch with their family through phone calls and Internet contact.
They attribute importance to living the migration process together with their children and see it as an irreparable loss the fact of not being able to be with their children every day, as shown by the following interview excerpt:

Cultural adaptation
Support for arrival. This subcategory refers to family or friend support networks. Sometimes, settled immigrants may be the ones motivating their relatives and friends to come and look for work, or this decision is taken within families. Real chains are created between family members or friends who are in the issuing country as well as in the settlement country. This is how they receive the support for the trip, maintenance and accommodation temporarily, until they find employment, which is when the migration expectation is fulfilled.
We can see the participation of migration

Final considerations
Migration represents for women a family subsistence strategy and a process of change, where there are difficulties to reconcile family and working life.
In the destination society, they build real social support networks, the dynamics of which are essential for the development of daily life activities and childcare. As some authors mentioned (14) , family, friend or neighbour support networks make residential and work integration easier.
In the results, we can see how this group tries to improve the financial situation and find a job, a means of support, allowing them to promote their social and family development. This situation coincides with what other authors say (14)(15) , as they point out the importance that immigrant women attach to financial security and social standing as indicators of the perceived health condition (16) . This is shown by some studies, which also mention the business field that some women explore . issues that concern their members regularly. However, the lack of daily coexistence with their children for the women in this study is considered a personal unrecoverable loss, which would arouse questions on the stability of transitional families mentioned in the literature (15) .
After the migration experience, women mentioned they felt more mature and responsible in the activities they perform in the reception country (18) . Nevertheless, after going through the initial period, they agree that they do not regret having come and are thankful for everything the reception country has provided them (19) .
The population of migrant women initially reproduces the social rules, values and attitudes that are similar to those in their home country. However, over time, immigrants gradually adopt the values and certain cultural patterns in the destination country.
Thus, the adaptation process makes it possible for them to appreciate their origin and culture, turning it into valuable knowledge for their life. They feel that their country's customs provide something, so they assess the elements they consider positive and those that are not, in each of the ways of living they have experienced in these places (20) .