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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2021
‘[I]t's normal work, this is what you do, everyone does it,’ said Maria, a 43- year-old woman from Ukraine, when asked about working in Poland's domestic work sector. Maria first came to Poland eight years ago. At the time of our interview, her visa had expired. As an undeclared care worker, she initially lived in Warsaw's suburbs in a room shared with over twenty other people. And yet she referred to what she was going through as ‘normal’. Maria's migration experience is similar to that of many other women interviewed. The risks of irregular migration, such as undeclared work, overstaying or poor living conditions, were a part and parcel of their experience. When asked how they understood the notion of risk, several of the women I interviewed mentioned a Ukrainian proverb: Who does not risk, does not drink champagne. They claimed that risks are an integral part of their migration. Well, where then was the champagne?
The rationale and aims of this study
The main purpose of this study is to examine how far the notion of risk may be useful as an analytical tool in explaining the process of irregular labour migration using the example of the domestic work sector. The study focuses on risk involved in labour migration of Ukrainian women who work as cleaners and care workers in Warsaw, Poland. The basic question to be answered in this study is to what extent the Ukrainian women's evaluation of and response to risk shape their experience of migration. Thus, the present study addresses risk both as an analytical and normative concept. The central issue is how the perception of risks contributes to women's choice of their destination country, modes of entry and stay, type of work abroad and how it affects their gendered roles as mothers and wives. I will use the notion of risk to analyse the complex decisions migrant women have to make when they undertake irregular labour migration. I will attempt to understand what it means for migrant women to ‘take risks’ and to ‘be at risk’ during migration, as well how far responses to risk are a factor shaping their migratory paths.
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