Migrant women workers in Cyprus

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the issues and discourses – from written, documented sources – of ‘foreign women migrants’ in Cyprus. The study is a literature review discussing similarities and differences on the issues of foreign women immigrants in terms of regulations, stories and perceptions. The issue of labour exploitation is examined around three groups of women: Domestic workers, sex workers and refugee women. Results suggest that the existing studies on migrant women workers on both sides of the island lack gender sensitivity and are generally limited to official reports, rather than the realities of the lives of women explored from feminist and gender studies’ perspective. The results of the study have important implications for academic institutions, researchers, government representatives, and journalists. This study provides an explanatory framework through which to examine and give meaning to the situation of migrant women in Cyprus who are recruited and subsequently exploited in low paying and low status jobs in the two dominant Cypriot communities in Cyprus.