Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>For decades, Moroccan women have been crossing the border into the Spanish city of Melilla to work in the domestic and care sectors along the Southern European Border in the North African coast. This precarious feminised niche for women migrating from the Global South addresses the rising care demands in the Global North. In the case of Melilla, these movements were interrupted by the border closure due to COVID-19 in March 2020. Despite being expected to stay in Morocco, doing so would have meant losing their sources of income, so many of them opted to overstay irregularly in Melilla. Drawing upon a Grounded Theory methodology, this chapter analyses the changes in traditional gender roles based on insights from 3 local informants and 10 interviews conducted in 2022 with domestic workers staying in the city. These changes are examined focusing on two dimensions: firstly, the redistribution of gendered caregiving responsibilities among family members who stayed in Morocco; secondly, it explores the empowerment opportunities these women found in Melilla, such as education and training. Traditional female roles in Morocco were challenged by adopting the role of head of household and the empowerment process through new educational opportunities and access to local resources, as well as the time available without the burden of a second shift of caregiving; however, the gendered distribution of care has only been partially challenged, as in Morocco it was mainly female family members who took on these tasks in the absence of the main caregiver.</jats:p>