Effects of globalisation on women emigrating from Mediterranean countries

The committee adopted the own-initiative report by María Antonia AVILÉS PEREA (EPP-ED, E) on the consequences of globalisation for women immigrants from the Mediterranean countries. The report called on the Member States to legalise and accord an appropriate legal status to service sector jobs, which were widely filled by immigrant women. It also stressed the need to carry out awareness campaigns to enhance the status of jobs of this kind. The committee also called on the Member States and the EU to take direct action to stop the trade in women and to inform women, who were frequently vulnerable to abusive practices by employers, of their rights. It stressed the link between unwarranted barriers to immigration and trafficking in human beings, particularly women, and urged the Member States to improve and amend their national laws on work permits and regularisation of immigrants. Awareness campaigns were needed to explain that immigration did not restrict the employment opportunities of European citizens, since it represented a response to the needs of the European labour market. It was also necessary to strengthen the various forms of support given to women immigrants, in particular to protect their rights as workers and in the fields of information, health, housing, education and vocational training. The Commission was asked to undertake a gender analysis of globalisation and consider setting up an observatory of migratory flows in the Mediterranean. The report also proposed an action plan on integrating gender issues in development cooperation. Lastly, the committee called for greater emphasis to be placed on investment in training women in the new tools of the information society, as part of the programmes provided for under the Euro-Mediterranean association agreements.�