Cuban Women in the Canary Islands (Spain): Coping with Deskilling and Reinventing Transnational Reproductive Practices

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, the Cuban community on the Canary Islands has grown steadily due to a generationally deferred migration, built on the connections established by former Canarian emigrants and favoured by the possibility of obtaining Spanish citizenship. In general, in this EU outermost region, the role of Latin American immigrant women is of great importance, but in the case of Cuban, due to significant changes inherent in migration, the factor of skilling must be added, given their higher educational and socio-professional level. To carry out this research, a comparative analysis of the socio-economic position of women in both the Cuban and Canarian labour markets is made, and with their leading role in transnational relationships between Cuba and Spain. This allows us to exemplify the deep transformations caused by the process of emigration and the complexity of the links between the home and host country through gender roles.