COVID-19, legal changes and challenges: Moroccan domestic workers at the Spanish-Moroccan border

This article analyzes the transformations of the normative framework governing the situation of Moroccan women employed in the care sector in Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish autonomous cities constituting the only European land borders on the African continent. It focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, examining how the border closure on March 14, 2020, disrupted the circular mobility that had sustained cross-border care work, exacerbating existing precarity and altering the legal and institutional environment. Drawing on a legal analysis and qualitative interviews, the article highlights the complexity of the challenges faced by cross-border care workers. It explores their working and living conditions that are shaped by intersecting inequalities and shifting regulations. Ultimately, the study situates these experiences within broader debates on the intersection of care work, border controls, and migration, revealing how normative changes affect mobility and livelihoods at Europe’s southern frontier.