ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses African employment in the accommodation and restaurant sector. It explores reasons for divergences in African employment. The chapter provides these two industries in the broad perspective of the development of tourism industries in Portugal and Spain. It shows demand for labour in accommodation services and restaurants largely vary according to business-type. The first of the four hotel examples is situated in an inland locality in Girona. The hotel is open for the whole year and caters for both tourists and travellers, as it is situated on a crucial road linking Barcelona and France. The chapter concentrates on hiring practices and employers' views on African employment. It examines the processes and actors that lie behind patterns of African employment. The low number of African female immigrants in paid work is primarily a result of their small total number compared to their male counterparts.
