African employment in Iberian construction: A cross-border analysis

Abstract

International labour immigration into Southern Europe has been highlighted as a main migration trend in Europe since the mid-1980s. Yet little research has been done on specific labour market processes that 'allow' immigrants to find work in the context of high European unemployment. More than 'absolute' labour shortages, it seems that immigrants fill the 'holes' in labour supply that home populations have left. This article explores this issue for the construction sectors in Portugal and Spain. Construction is a key industry for both economies and one that employs substantial numbers of African workers. Yet its structure varies considerably depending on national economic circumstances. This in turn affects African labour outcomes. These outcomes are examined here through the analysis of in-depth interviews with African employees and employers in Girona (Spain), and Algarve and Setúbal (Portugal). The cross-border comparison reveals a different role being played by immigrants in the construction industry on either sides of the border. Construction is thus the main employer of African males in Portugal providing jobs for immigrants throughout their working lives in the country, but it plays a more marginal role for Africans in Spain. The Girona survey clearly shows that construction offers unskilled work on a temporary basis to immigrants, even subjected to local variations in labour demand. Unlike in Spain, Africans in Portugal secure skilled manual jobs in construction. A main reason for this is the unattractiveness of construction for non-immigrant white workers due to low wages and high levels of casual work within the sector. The article concludes that the Portuguese and Spanish construction markets operate in ways that are consistent with segmentation labour market theories. In the case of Spain, segmentation occurs by type of work, with Africans being placed in a clearly-defined niche of unskilled, manual, short-term jobs. In Portugal, the whole construction sector appears to be an immense 'reservoir' of unstable, low-paid work left behind by white native workers.