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Rebeca is 28 years old, she is Cuban and has been trying to make her way in Spain for four years. For the past three years, she has lived in Ourense, where she works cleaning houses twice a week, without a contract and getting paid in cash.
Like her, thousands of Cubans and Latin Americans quietly support many European households, but today they feel that their situation is more fragile than ever.
The story of Rebeca was captured by La Región Ourense in a report that highlights the real impact of the new domestic workers' law, recently enacted in Spain. For this young Cuban, instead of representing an improvement, the regulation has raised more fear and uncertainty among those who rely on this type of work.
"Everything sounds excessive and absurd," Rebeca confesses to the Galician media. Although she is in a regular immigration status and meets the requirements for a job contract, she has never been offered one.
He works "on the side," as they say on the street, hoping that one day his situation will become formalized. However, the new law has made him think that this moment may never come.
The regulation introduces new obligations for employers, such as higher contributions, workplace risk prevention plans, and specific training. Although the official goal is to dignify domestic work, many workers fear that the effect will be the opposite.
"This law will reduce the labor supply," warns Rebeca. The fear of high penalties is causing many families to refrain from hiring.
According to data from the Oxfam Intermón Foundation mentioned in the report, 69% of people working in domestic service in Spain are foreigners or have dual nationality. Most of them are migrant women who, like Rebeca, depend on this income to survive, send remittances, or build a life away from their countries of origin.
For the Cuban woman, the issue goes beyond money. She thinks about the future and the years that pass without contributing. "In the end, those are years that haven't paid into the system, and retirement feels much farther away," she laments. Even so, she feels that the new legal framework does not protect workers; instead, it leaves them in a no man's land.
"The people who hire us need us, and we need them to make a living," he explains. "We contribute a great deal to this society, but each day it becomes harder for us to be able to work." In his view, the fines and requirements "affect everyone" and ultimately penalize those who are already in a vulnerable situation.
Rebeca does not rule out leaving this job and seeking another option if she does not secure a contract. Her testimony summarizes the feelings of many Cuban women in the diaspora, caught between the need to work, legal barriers, and the constant fear of being excluded from the system. A reality that, as she warns, ultimately leads to "everyone losing in the end."
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