Male Domestic Workers and Gendered Boundaries among Latin American Migrants in Brussels

Based on ethnographic research conducted in Brussels, this article analyses gender-based constructions in relation to paid domestic work. We focus our attention on Latin American migrants who, unlike migrants from other regions, come from societies where paid domestic work has been the main occupation of women throughout the twentieth century, where it was strongly shaped by a colonial legacy. We identify two main tropes within the discourse of our informants regarding this kind of work: the ‘(gendered) professional’ and the ‘(domestic) worker’. In our analysis, particular attention is given to the participation of men in paid domestic work within the context of migratory experiences.


Gender and Intercultural boundaries within the domestic space
As noted by Raffaella Sarti (2006), in homes where migrant domestic workers are employed, 'private' spaces become spaces of intercultural interaction, which may also include the negotiation of gender identities.Although gender has been an important analytical dimension in migration studies over the past decades, it has been noticed that 'the field of migration studies continues to be less receptive to the theoretical and empirical insights of this research when compared to other area-studies disciplines' (Andall, 2013, p. 525).In an attempt to highlight the value of this category in the study of male migrants usually considered as 'gender-neutral', the use of 'gender' as restricted to 'women' has been particularly criticized (Mahler and Pessar, 2006;Raghuram, 2008;Andall, 2013).Recent studies have addressed empirically the gendered dimensions of migrants' participation within the labour market in the host societies 2013; Näre, 2013).Research on male migrants working in feminized occupations, particularly in paid domestic work, has revealed the tensions they experience while trespassing both national and gendered boundaries (Scrinzi, 2010;Qayum & Rey, 2010;Näre, 2010).
While paid domestic work has been a feminized occupation in Western Europe since the nineteenth century, in recent decades, an increasing involvement of migrant men in paid domestic work has been pointed out (Sarti & Scrinzi, 2010;Kilkey, 2010).In Italy, for instance, the proportion of men in paid domestic work fluctuated between a third of the migrant declared workers and a 10 per cent of all (migrant and national) declared domestic workers (Sarti, 2010).This trend is also visible in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain (Kilkey, 2010, p. 132).This phenomenon has recently been accentuated by the European economic crisis, characterized by the lack of work 'for men', and particularly migrant men (Borrás Catatalà et. al, 2012;Oso & Catarino, 2013).If paid work is a key element in the construction of masculinity (Connell, 2005), being employed in a feminized occupation puts the gender identity of the male worker under stress (Williams, 1993;Gallo, 2006;Guichard-Claudic, 2006).
Based on ethnographic research conducted in Brussels, this article analyses the negotiation of gendered boundaries among domestic workers.We focus on Latin American migrants, who, unlike migrants from other regions, come from societies where paid domestic work has been one of the main occupations for women throughout the twentieth century, where it was strongly shaped by a colonial legacy (Von Oertzen, 2005).As the most feminized occupation, it is characterized by precarious labour conditions, high levels of informality and low wages.This is related to its definition as low-skilled work, as long as 'the skills required for these services are embodied, transferred from practices in the domestic sphere and depicted as innately female' (Kofman, 2013, p. 580).The physical and social isolation of the workers in their employers' homes to-gether with low levels of unionization add to these precarious conditions (Chaney & García Castro, 1989;Blofield, 2009).
In Belgium, paid domestic work is one of the most common jobs for Latin American migrants (Suárez Orozco, 1994), for both male and female (CIDALIA, 2012).Although Belgian public policies have made an effort to improve the labour conditions of paid domestic work, giving it a more 'professional' status, this work continues to be associated with a subaltern position, which, as in Latin America, is anchored in ethnic and gender inequalities (Rollins, 1985).Latin American migrants, many of whom had never been employed in this occupation in their home countries, usually experience paid domestic work as a step back down on the social ladder.
In the following sections, after a brief description of the Latin American migration trends to Belgium, and of the labour conditions that situate our informants' experience of paid domestic work in Brussels, we discuss two main tropes within our informants' discourse, which we have labelled as the '(gendered) professional' and the '(domestic) worker'.In the assumption that gender identities are relational constructions crossed by class and ethnic inequalities (Yuval-Davis, 1997), the narratives of male and female informants have been analysed in order to discover the ways in which gendered boundaries are negotiated and (re)created in the experience of paid domestic workers within international migration (Hondagneu Sotelo & Ozyegin, 2008;Lutz, 2008).As we will show, rather than eliminating gender boundaries, the involvement of men in paid domestic work displaces and reinforces them.

Latin American migrants in Brussels
Following the Second World War, instead of continuing to be a recipient of immigrants, Latin America became one of the regions with the highest levels of emigration.Since the 1970s, migration levels from Latin America to Europe and the United States have increased without interruption.In recent decades, migration to Europe has increased significantly, particularly to destinations such as Spain, Italy and Portugal.Up to the 1980s migration was triggered mainly by political motives, but since the 1990s economic migration has become dominant, following neoliberal policies in Latin America that resulted in slashed social services, increased job insecurity, poverty growth, and social inequalities intensification.In this context, migration to the Global North was an alternative to job uncertainty and impoverishment (Gil Araujo, 2008).
In Belgium, this period was marked by changes in immigration policies.Since 1974, the Belgian state has limited the access of foreigners to the country.Nevertheless, immigration has continued to increase in the past four decades, generating a growing population of undocumented migrants with little or no possibilities to legalize their presence in the country.In 2007, it was estimated that two-thirds of the 30,000 Latin American migrants residing in Belgium were undocumented (Sáenz & Salazar, 2007).
Among Latin American migrants in Belgium, the most common countries of origin include Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.Migration from the latter two countries increased sharply from the late 1990s to the 2000s, in line with political and economic crises that dominated both countries.The Latin American population in Belgium is relatively young, between 20 and 35 years old, predominantly female, with at least a high school diploma.For the most part, women work in domestic service and men in construction, painting, and gardening (Sáenz & Salazar, 2007).However, in recent years Latin American men are increasingly working in cleaning and domestic services, occupations strongly identified as 'women's work' (CIDALIA, 2012).
The labour conditions under which paid domestic work is performed in Belgium, and under which our informants' experience is situated, are diverse.The rights of domestic workers are regulated by law under the status of 'travailleur domestique'.Unlike the 'ouvrier' and the 'employé' status, domestic workers are entitled only to the minimum salary, without any limitations in overtime and night work (ORCA, 2010).Domestic workers' legal conditions discriminate between full and part time workers regarding social security coverage, family allowances and maternity leave.
However, in recent years various European countries have developed different policies aimed at both the creation of employment and the professionalization of paid domestic work (Tomei, 2011).In this context, the implementation of the Titres Services scheme (Service Voucher scheme) in Belgium has changed the legal status of many domestic workers since 2004.Under this scheme, the Belgian state subsidizes part of the cost of labour, giving licenses to agencies who act as intermediaries between employers and workers.Even for part time workers, being employed by one of these agencies implies having an employment contract and being covered by the social security system.By 2011, the scheme had 834,959 users and 2,754 registered agencies.Of the 149,827 workers in the scheme, 73.4 per cent were Belgian and 26.6 per cent were foreign.However, in Brussels, where 13.5 per cent of those who work in the scheme are concentrated, this proportion is reversed.There, of the 13.5 per cent, 77 per cent of the workers were foreign.Of the 55.1 per cent from European countries, most were from Poland; 21.9 per cent were from outside Europe.Of the 13.5 per cent workers concentrated in Brussels, 94.8 per cent were women.Regarding age and qualification, 61.4 per cent were between 30 and 49 years old, and 63.4 per cent were low-skilled (Gerard, Neyenes & Valsamis, 2012).
Despite the many advantages offered by the Service Voucher scheme, only a minority of the domestic workers are employed under this measure.The legal status of paid domestic workers in Belgium is still extremely heterogeneous (Pasleau & Schopp, 2005a, 2005b), including registered workers, workers involved in the informal economy, and workers who occupy an intermediate position between the two.As most paid domestic work in Belgium is performed by migrants (De Keyzer, 1997;Pasleau & Schopp, 2005a;ORCA, 2010), the migrant status is the key to understanding labour conditions (Anderson, 2000;Hondagneu Sotelo, 2001;Pasleau & Schopp, 2005a, 2005b).Undocumented migrants are employed within the informal market under very precarious conditions.The combination of registered and informal work is also common within migrants. 1 A category difficult to classify, though nevertheless frequent in Brussels due to the international functions of the city, are domestic workers under a 'diplomatic' contract.These migrants arrive in Belgium with a legal employment contract for a fixed term with a diplomatic agent, giving them legal residence in the country.This makes them completely dependent on their employer, who in some cases even confiscates the workers' passports (Pasleau & Schopp, 2005 b). 2  The diversity of labour conditions makes it difficult to estimate the total number of domestic workers and the segment of male workers.While workers employed by Titres Services agencies are mostly female (95 per cent), the number of male workers has grown significantly in recent years with an increase up to 50 per cent between 2009 and 2011 (Gerard, Neyenes & Valsamis, 2012).As has been observed in other cases (Sarti, 2008;2010;Kilkey 2010), the presence of men in paid domestic work is concentrated within the migrant population.For instance, in 2011, 50 per cent of the Ecuadorian women and 17 per cent of the Ecuadorian men residing in Brussels were employed in 'domestic' or 'cleaning' services, this being the main occupation for women and the second for men (CIDALIA, 2012).
The research presented here is based on an ethnographic fieldwork carried out between November 2012 and March 2013.Data were gathered through a period of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in Brussels.The research team consisted of one senior researcher with longstanding experience with migrant communities in Brussels, and one fulltime researcher specialized in domestic work in Latin America.We were involved in participant observation in different social spaces, such as evangelical and Catholic churches, migrant associations, socio-cultural meetings and informal gatherings.Informants were reached by snowball sampling.In-depth interviews were done with 35 Latin American migrants who were either employed at the time of the interview or who had been previously employed in paid domestic work, particularly in household cleaning activities (25 women and 10 men).All interviews were conducted in Spanish.
By national origins, our research sample covers most of Latin American countries, namely: Ecuador (17), Colombia (6), El Salvador (4), Paraguay (4), Bolivia (2), Argentina (1) and Chile (1). 3 The working conditions of our informants, both male and female, are diverse and are strongly marked by their migration status.Their residence in Belgium ranges between 21 years and a few months, although most of them arrived ten to thirteen years ago.Those who have a legal residence permit have better working conditions regarding working time, wages and licenses.Those who do not face serious difficulties in finding a job, and when they do find one, they are strongly dependent on their employers.This vulnerable situation is exacerbated in the case of migrants who have recently arrived in Brussels and do not know anything of the two official languages, French and Dutch.

(Gendered) professionals
The first trope we identified in the narratives of our informants (both men and women) is professionalism, which connotes equality and dignity of work, and is connected with the language of rights and with an emphasis on the specific knowledge that domestic work requires.However, as we will show, professionalism is not gender neutral.For most of our informants, the observation of their labour rights regarding working hours, overtime, sick leave, health and unemployment insurances was achieved only after their entry into the Titres Services scheme.This is a common trend with other migrant workers.According to a survey carried out by the Belgian state in 2011, foreign workers declared that their main purpose in entering the Service Voucher scheme was to get out of the informal sector and acquire professional experience and social rights, while Belgians said they entered the scheme mainly for its flexibility and because it allowed them to work near their homes.For non-Belgians the scheme is an opportunity to work within a legal context, but for Belgian workers it is for practical reasons possibly related to family needs (Gerard, Neyenes & Valsamis, 2012, p. 54).
As the Titres Services scheme is limited to those people with a legal residence permit in Belgium, entering it only became possible for many of our interviewees after being regularized (that is, their status was adjusted) by the Belgian State in 2009.Although many of our informants continued with the same employers they had had before, entering the scheme gave them the prospect of a future retirement pension and the possibility to assert their rights regarding the number of working hours, illness, or unemployment.
Libia: I worked in the informal sector.I was able to get a very kind Spanish lady [an employer] who also helped me in getting other jobs.And I still continue to work for them [her employers], because I haven't changed or anything, I received my [residence] papers five years ago and started declaring my work at a Titres-Services agency....There are advantages.If you work as unregistered sometimes your employers fire you and they don't pay you.Then you're stuck, because you still have to pay the rent, you have obligations, but the advantage with the agencies is that if you lose your job, they help you look for another one.And if you can't find one, they send you to the union, because you are entitled to a union, and the union gives you unemployment compensation....And you also have a right to a paid vacation.And in the union they give you a bonus. 4  Professionalism, however, does not only rest in formal rights.For our informants, the equal treatment received from their employers also expressed the recognition of their professional status.This is highlighted by the contrasting image of domestic service they bring from their home countries, even if the informant did not have previous experience in this work before migrating.Being an equal of the employer is identified with situations and practices that have a particularly symbolic value.However, as we shall see in the second excerpt quoted below, even though 'equality' and 'respect' are highly valued, anxiety can also be experienced: Liliana: Here [in Belgium] they always treat you with respect....There [in Ecuador], they make them [domestic employees] wear a uniform and everything. 5  Ivonne: My Spanish employers used to say to me, 'come, sit and eat with us'.I used to set the table, but I don't know, it made me feel uncomfortable to eat with them.I always ate last, after they had finished. 6  The employers' invitation to share a meal with them is perhaps the practice most frequently recalled to symbolize equality.In Latin America, where the relationship between employers and domestic workers is characterized by an intense inequality, the 'myth of being like a daughter' does not usually imply commensality (Young, 1987;Gorban, 2013).If workers would share the table with anyone, it would usually be with their employers' children, in a practice that reinforces their own infantilization (Chaney & García Castro, 1989;Von Oertzen, 2005).In Belgium, sharing the table and other gestures that imply an equal status usually generates discomfort.However, workers highlight this treatment as a positive element of their experience in the receiving country.
Professionalism is not only related to working conditions, but also to the way in which workers present themselves.In this regard, our informants have built an ambivalent image of paid domestic work.On the one hand, it is seen as a deskilling and, in that sense, a de-masculinizing activity.As documented, many of the migrants -both male and female -employed as domestic workers in the Global North are highly qualified, yet experience their job as a step back down on the social ladder, related to the misrecognition of their abilities (Salazar Parreñas, 2008).This perception is intensified in the case of men.Even those who had previously been involved in 'feminine' occupations, as in the case quoted below, experienced an inability in finding a job different from that of paid domestic work, which is seen as a form of marginalization, anchored in their national origin.This creates hierarchies among migrants, between those who have a 'masculine' profession -such as painter or mason -and those who do not.
José Carlos: It is much more difficult for a man, but it varies according to one's professional area.Of course if one comes with a profession such as painting, or masonry, it's easier to get into a company.But it's much more difficult in my case: I am a nurse.I have been here for seven years, and when I arrived, I started trying to get my degree approved with no results to date.Some guys I work with in house cleaning have told me, 'if you do not have help from a Belgian, it won't be easy to open doors'.There is this marginalization, especially for Latinos, although not only for Latinos.Even though this area of nursing has priority, it is not easy to find employment. 7  On the other hand, our informants praised their housekeeping abilities in knowing how to organize different tasks to increase efficiency, what products should be used in order to clean and protect diverse surfaces, what techniques should be implemented for ironing, among other things.The possession of specific knowledge required for this job is also an element of the professional image our informants build in their discourses.However, men and women link this specific knowledge to different experiences.While women tend to relate this specific knowledge to unpaid domestic work, men emphasize its connection with their previous working experience, even though our informants' previous working experience before migrating -both men and women -was not in paid domestic work.
Mercedes: Thank God they [my employers] are happy with my work.Interviewer: And what do you attribute this to?Mercedes: My mom.I thank my mom that she always taught us to be responsible.So we grew up to be responsible and do things right. 8  José Carlos: They [the employers] asked me 'what can you do?' I said I can do everything, I wash, iron, cook, clean.Because the work I had done before helped me.I worked in the area of hotel and tourism, and there, one had to do everything. 9 Yoder: When she [the employer] asked me to iron [her husband's] shirts, I did it well, because back in the store in Ecuador, I learned to iron cuffs and everything, and they looked like new. 10   This discursive difference is translated into a displacement of the sexual division of labour (Scrinzi, 2010).Most of our informants combine cleaning with other activities, which also depend on the sex of the worker: women tend to combine it with caring, while men usually combine it with more 'masculine' activities, such as gardening or repairing.Although cleaning is the more stable work for our informants, men value these other activities as more important, not only in economic but also in symbolic terms.Many informants even present their work as 'gardening' or 'repairing', and it is only within the course of the interview and from direct questions that the centrality of cleaning activities becomes apparent.
Traditional gender stereotypes play a crucial role in differentiating feminine ('unskilled') and masculine ('skilled') activities.While the knowledge required for caring depends on personal rather than professional experience which reinforces the naturalization of domestic labour as feminine, 'masculine' activities are supposed to require specific training.Our informants refer to the courses they had taken to learn this kind of work.Men also argue that they are better than women in activities such as cleaning.Titres-Services agencies, in fact, present them as better workers to potential employers, who are sometimes reluctant to hire men to perform activities seen as 'feminine'.This superiority is related to 'masculine' characteristics, such as rational use of time or physical strength.Previous professional experience such as handling machines and chemicals is mentioned to highlight the higher professional skills of the male domestic worker (Chopra, 2006;Scrinzi, 2010).
The differentiation between 'skilled' (male) and 'unskilled' (female) activities translates to an inequality in earnings.Vouchers subsidized by the state under the Titres Service scheme can only be used to pay for specific services (cleaning, ironing, household purchases, and transportation of persons with limited mobility).Within this scheme, each voucher is theoretically equivalent to one hour of work.Thus employers pay less for services, and employees are able to hold on to a registered job in a time of increasing unemployment.However, fraud often occurs when workers are paid for other services with vouchers.In practice, while cleaning and caring for an hour is equivalent to one voucher, repairing or gardening is considered more expensive and workers receive more vouchers than the hours they actually worked.
Professionalism is a central trope in the discursive strategies of our informants to enhance the value of paid domestic work, and one of the strategies developed by men to enhance their masculinity while being employed in a feminized occupation.However, as we have seen, professionalism is not the same for men and women.Gender inequalities, as part of the sexual division of labour, are replicated or even reinforced in the world of paid domestic workers.

(Domestic) workers
Our informants state that, in the context of migration, paid domestic work is usually the first job of the majority of Latin Americans for both men and women.However, unlike women, who eloquently describe their experiences related to paid domestic work, our male respondents exhibited some reluctance in talking about their everyday working experience or even refused to be interviewed on that topic (see also Näre, 2010).
While most of our informants have improved their working conditions over the years, their first job in Belgium was characterized by precarious labour conditions and a strong dependence on their employers.The pejorative regard they already had of paid domestic work before migrating to Europe was further intensified by this situation.In most cases, their decision to migrate had been triggered by unemployment, due to the severe economic crisis in the Latin American home countries as a consequence of neoliberal policies.Their arrival in Belgium and a first job in paid domestic work is a crucial point in a trajectory marked by unemployment, poverty, and economic instability in the countries of origin.In the informants' narratives, and especially in our male re-spondents, the scene in which they first see themselves cleaning someone else's house is a pivotal moment in which they realize how drastic the change taking place in their lives has been.
Among men, this change was experienced differently depending on our informant's age.Those who were older when they started to work in cleaning services emphasize the drop in their working careers, and the need to step up for their families.The younger ones, on the other hand, see this work as the end of childhood and their initiation in the responsibilities of adult life: they migrated leaving behind their parents' home and their life as students with a professional future.Paid domestic work is, nevertheless, seen as a way to earn more money than they would have been able to in their home countries, a step forward in a career that could enable them to leave cleaning behind in order to build their own company.In this sense, most of our male informants -regardless their age -present paid domestic work as the beginning of an upward path embedded in the image of the 'self-made-man'.Despite the poor labour conditions they had to face, this work allowed them to make money and support their families.
Osvaldo: When I started to work for the cleaning company, I had never cleaned before, I used to work in civil aviation; I worked in an office, wearing a suit.But when you already have a certain age, and you have a family, you have to be tough on yourself and say, 'this is going to feed me'.It is not the same for young people.I know young people who have their finished their studies and they tell me 'why should I do that [being employed in paid domestic work]?'But a person that already has a family thinks differently.And so, I became used to the idea. 11Yoder: In Ecuador I was an independent man, I had my own business: I was a shopkeeper.To me, it [being employed in paid domestic work] was a bit hard, because I had never been given orders, I had employees in the store under my supervision.I rented an entire store, and the business was mine, I made investments and sales.I never even had a boss.And of course when I came here [to Brussels] I was a little shocked, but I said 'who cares', here my goal was to pay my debts in Ecuador and to help my family. 12  Dígar: It all depends on what you were used to.Me, back at home [in Ecuador] I didn't clean or do anything.Then, here [in Belgium], you have to change.In the first place, your mom is not here.In the second place, you start seeing that the way we were brought up in our countries is bad, because there is lot of macho behaviour....And over time, you adapt to the condition you're in.[At first] I didn't know how to iron [clothes].I learned how to here.I had no money and cleaning was the only work there was. 13  Paid domestic work is presented by our informants as the beginning of a change of mind which involves a review of the gender stereotypes and the sexual division of labour that characterize Latin American societies.Our male in-formants emphasize the learning value of their migration experience.Our female respondents also value positively men's employment in paid domestic work.The fact that a man engages in this type of employment is seen as a breakdown of traditional gender stereotypes.However, the discursive emphasis on more egalitarian gender relations cannot be disconnected from the confirmation of one of the main tropes of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2005): the male breadwinner.For our informants -both men and women -what is at stake is that men should not be economically supported by women and must fulfil their task as family providers.This means that by accepting a job as domestic worker, men avoid being unemployed which would be the main threat to their masculinity (Borrás Catatalà, Moreno Colom, Castelló Santamaria & Grau Casajust, 2012).The 'willing-to-work man', who faces up to the family needs even if he has to take a cleaning job is seen as breaking with traditional gender patterns.
Miguel: As long as you send them money, they [your family] are pleased and happy, and you come here and are a king to them.But if you're here and you're not earning or anything, you're lazy, you're bad, you're good for nothing, because you don't want to do anything. 14  This latter image gains intensity in the context of the current economic crisis in Europe, where the institutions of the welfare state, and particularly unemployment subsidies, are under discussion.Latin Americans in Brussels use the trope of the 'state abuser' to build an opposition between 'good' and 'bad' migrants.The idea that 'everyone' -meaning every migrant -has to have the experience of paid domestic work gives way to another image: that not 'every' migrant is willing to accept such a job, only 'good' migrants do.
'Good' and 'bad' migrants are distinguished by their willingness to work.While Latin American migrants position themselves as hard working people that share the work ethics of the (Western) receiving society, they identify those coming from Islamic countries, labelled as 'Marrocanos', as the ones who do not want to work and abuse the state, living from its subsidies.The situation in Brussels is particularly shocking to our informants, and has to be explained by the difference between 'old' and 'new' migrants.Most of those Moroccans fall within the category of 'old' migrants (pertaining to migrant communities that arrived in Belgium prior to 1974), and hold Belgian citizenship, and with it, the social rights guaranteed by the Belgian welfare state (Stallaert, 2004).Latin American migrants who arrived in Belgium under different conditions and who, in many cases, still do not have legal residence in the country, question a model that 'privileges' those migrants who do not 'want to work'.Hugo: Marrocans, blacks ... they should be working….Some people don't want to work, they want everything handed out....For example, a Belgian person that's fired from a car assembly line, he does not want to work doing gardening, this is a reality.But we [Latin Americans] can work doing gar-dening….It is work, but they [Marrocanos, Belgians] don't want to do it. 15  Miguel: The European has felt social disintegration a lot.Because they are not used to doing these kinds of jobs, [such as] cleaning floors, taking care of old people.Those are things that they have never wanted to do.Latin Americans, instead, we go and do it. 16  The opposition between 'good' and 'bad' migrants is replicated in the differentiation between 'good' and 'bad' citizens.In this regard, our informants present themselves as better citizens than Europeans, as long as their willingness to work is stronger.The proof of this statement is that Latin Americans are willing to work in occupations that would be rejected by Europeans, such as paid domestic work.Willingness to work is highlighted by the fact that they are employed in a feminized occupation, rejected both by Moroccans and Europeans who would rather be unemployed than accept work in a 'woman's job'.

Final thoughts
In Western Europe, paid domestic work has been a feminized occupation since the nineteenth century.In recent years, the growing participation of men in this occupation can be observed, especially among migrant workers.In Brussels, paid domestic work is one of the main occupations for Latin American migrants, even among men.This situation generates different tensions among both Latin American men and women employed in paid domestic work.In this article, we have analysed migrants' discursive strategies to negotiate gendered boundaries within this 'feminized' work.We have focused on two discursive tropes: the '(domestic) worker' and the '(gendered) professional'.
As we have seen, our informants develop a professionalization strategy to enhance the value of their job.Despite common elements of the professional image built by men and women, we discerned a gendered pattern.While men base the specific knowledge and skills required for this job on their previous working experience, women relate it to their personal experience.This gendered pattern is reinforced by the fact that in Brussels, paid household cleaning is frequently combined with other activities, which differ according to the sex of the worker, and which receive different wages.In this regard, even if they have a lower status than men employed in other jobs, male domestic workers occupy a more 'privileged' position in relation to their female colleagues, reproducing, within a subaltern position, traditional gender inequalities.
Nevertheless, both our male and female informants value the involvement of men in paid domestic work as positive.Having a job, even in a feminized occupation, implies that it is better than being 'maintained' by a woman or by the state.Although the 'domestic' (and feminine) condition is given less value, accepting a job rejected by others shows a willingness to work.Our informants present themselves as 'good' migrants and 'good' citizens, and   Agences pour l'Emploi as part of the grey area.Here, however, we propose another interpretation.The Titres-Services scheme allows migrants to have an employment contract and to contribute to the social security system.In that sense, we consider it part of the formal economy, where workers' rights are recognized.2. Though it might be interesting to study the 'diplomatic contract' in more depth, our informants have not participated in this.For further analysis on similar working conditions in the UK, see Cox (2006).3. The interviews were conducted in Spanish.This is the reason why Brazilian migrants were excluded from our sample.The quotations from the interviews were translated for the purposes of this article.4. Interview with Libia, Colombian woman, 50 years old, Brussels, 6 December 2012.
'Yo trabajé al negro, me conseguí una señora española también muy gentil que me ayudó a conseguir otras plazas.Y hasta aquí estoy con las mismas, porque no he cambiado ni nada, me llegaron los papeles hace cinco años y empecé a trabajar declarada [en] una agencia de titres de services.…Hay ventajas.Si uno trabaja en negro hay veces que los patrones salen y se van y no le pagan a uno.Entonces uno queda varado, viendo que de todas maneras tiene que pagar arriendo, tiene que pagar la obligación, pero en cambio con las agencias sí hay muchas ventajas porque uno si se queda sin trabajo, pues le ayudan a buscar.Y si no, de todas maneras le mandan a uno, porque aquí uno tiene derecho a un sindicato y el sindicato cuando no está trabajando lo mandan a chomage … la ventaja es buena porque también le pagan a uno las vacaciones, eso también es pago.En el sindicato le dan a uno un porcentaje de una prima.' 5. Interview with Liliana, Ecuadorian woman, 45 years old, Brussels, 13 November 2012.

Notes 1 .
Pasleau & Schopp (2005 a)  identify employment in Titres-Services agencies and in local better than na-tive Europeans or other migrants from other regions, who would rather be 'maintained' by the state than work in a feminized job.InésPérez <inesp18@yahoo.com> is a post-doctoral scholar at the Argentinean National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), and assistant lecturer in the Universidad de Mar del Plata.Among her latest publications, see 'Modern Kitchens in the Pampas: Home Mechanization and Housework in Argentina (Argentina), 1940-1970', Journal of Women's History 26, 2014; and 'Entre las normas y sus usos.Servicio doméstico, trabajo, intimidad y justicia en el Consejo de Trabajo Doméstico (Buenos Aires, 1956-1962)', Nuevo Mundo, Mundos Nuevos, http://nuevomundo.revues.org/65167.Christiane Stallaert <ChristianeStallaert@uantwerpen.be> is Professor of Intercultural Communication, Hispanic Studies and Anthropology at the University of Antwerp and the University of Leuven (Belgium).Among her latest publications are: Translation and Conversion as Interconnected 'Modes'.A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism in Iberian cultures, in Joan Ramon Resina (Ed.), Iberian Modalities.A Relational Approach to the Study of Culture in the Iberian Peninsula, Liverpool University Press, 2013, pp.109-125; and Discursos, políticas y prácticas de convivencia en la Europa del siglo XXI.Una traducción antropológica, Gazeta de Antropología, Universidad de Granada, 2012, 28(3), Article 2. The research presented in this article was possible thanks to an Erasmus ARTESS (Argentina towards Europe for Social Sciences) Scholarship that provided for a post-doctoral research position at the Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre (IMMRC) of the University of Leuven (Belgium).