Having your chores done while doing good at the same time — is that even possible? With Valeriana it is!

Today, we are going to look at a few facts and figures about people with a migration background who work in the housekeeping sector. We’ve gathered this information from UN Women’s “How Migration is a Gender Equality issue” page.

Globally, more there are more than 67 million people working in the housekeeping sector. 11.5 million of them have a migration background.

Among them, there are approximately 8.5 million women with a migration background who work in housekeeping, rendering valuable work as cleaners, housekeepers or childminders.

If you think about it, 8.5 million women is almost the same number as the entire population of Switzerland. In comparison, three million men with a migration background work in the housekeeping sector.

Despite their valuable contribution, people with a migration background in the housekeeping sector are confronted with a lot of risks and challenges. They are often employed informally, as a result of which they often miss out on fair working conditions, labour protection, official registration as well as social insurance and benefits. Among other issues, this also fosters dependencies and unequal power dynamics. And moreover, migrants are often subjected to social isolation due to linguistic and cultural barriers, making it more difficult for them to form meaningful relationships in their new home country.

In order to prevent such horror scenarios from happening in the first place, Valeriana, as both a social impact start-up and as an employer, actively campaigns to ensure a fair additional income for people with a migration background. We offer 20% more income than competitors because we believe that good and honest work deserves a fair wage. Good social benefits/insurance (AHV, IV, EO, ALV, KTG, accident insurance) are also a matter of course for us. In this way, we can also fight the endemic of undeclared work in the housekeeping sector and provide our employees with a steady job.

Next to all these hard facts when it comes to the subject of employment, it is especially important to us that we empower those people who have decided to create a new home for themselves in Switzerland and support them in this process. One way we do this is through “integration through work”, where we help our employees with a migration background to integrate into society by giving them part-time jobs and creating a sense of community.

On the other hand, we also make use of effective community activities, such as, for examples, German language courses and on-the-job training to help promote our employees’ skills and connect them with each other. Of course, leisure time and socialising outside of our workings house are also part of our strategy. We are already looking forward to organising trips, courses and workshops, ranging from museum visits to cooking evenings and outdoor trips — as soon as it is safe to do so again.

Do you want to have more chores done while doing good at the same time? For yourself and for others? The book with Valeriana here: valeriana.ch/buchen

About us Having your chores done while doing good at the same time — is that even possible? With Valeriana it is!

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Hello, we are the Valeriana team.