Migrant Care Labour: The Commodification and Redistribution of Care and Emotional Work

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudrun Bauer ◽  
August Österle
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Private Households ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Emotional Work ◽  
Emotional Dimensions

Many European countries are experiencing a redistribution of care work from family members to paid migrant workers in private households. This involves not only a commodification of the practical tasks of care work, but also a redistribution of the emotional element of care. This study explores the emotional experiences of migrant care workers from Central Eastern Europe providing care work in private households in Austria. Based on a literature review and qualitative interviews with migrant care workers, the article investigates the emotional dimensions of migrant care work and the ways in which the regulatory context impacts on these dimensions.

Care-Arbeit und Care-Berufe

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 452-458
Author(s):  
Martin Werding
Keyword(s):  
Wage Gap ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Charitable Organizations ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Private Households ◽  
A Value ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Professional Care

Abstract Care work can be provided in various forms and in differing institutional settings, ranging from private households over social networks and charitable organizations to public or private entities employing professional care persons. All these forms of care work create a value-added, but are subject to very different economic conditions. Focusing on professional care and building on German micro-data, the article shows preliminary evidence that there might be a »care wage-gap«, i.e., a systematic disadvantage of care workers compared to other professions in terms of their remuneration. It points out how this presumption could be thoroughly scrutinized and suggests possible reasons - among other things, the existence of informal care - that could be tested in subsequent steps.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Francisco-Menchavez
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Fictive Kin ◽  
Migrant Family ◽  
Institutional Actor

This chapter sums up the meaning, forms, roles and definitions of care is at the crux of proposing multidirectional care as a model of transnational care. The different actors contributing care work in the transnational family urge us to decenter the lone migrant family member as the sole provider; rather it values the care work that many people involved in transnational family arrangements contribute to sustaining familial relationships while separated and shifting gender ideologies. It urges us to think about families with an expanded view, to include biological kin and fictive kin, both at home and abroad, as care workers. Although the multidirectional care model illuminates elaborate exchanges of care work, the conclusion critically examines the invisible, institutional actor--the Philippine labor brokerage state--reified in the discussions of reorganized care work in the Filipino transnational family. Finally, the chapter ends with a call to action for the support of migrant workers globally.

Nonprofit Care Work as Social Glue: Creating and Sustaining Social Reproduction in the Context of Austerity/Late Neoliberalism

Affilia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465
Author(s):  
Donna Baines ◽  
Ian Cunningham ◽  
Innocentia Kgaphola ◽  
Senzelwe Mthembu
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Social

This article will bring together the social glue concept of social reproduction and a feminist analysis of civil society to the study of nonprofit care work in order to cast analytic light on the dynamics of care work in the nonprofit sector and contribute to theorizing care work, to identify and theorize aspects of nonprofit care work which reproduce and sustain social glue, and to supplement theory on civil society. Drawing on qualitative interviews with nonprofit care workers in South Africa and Scotland, this article argues that care work, in general, and nonprofit care work, more specifically, are key components of civil society and central to the gendered social glue that holds societies together. We argue that nonprofit care workers are part a distinctive but porous set of social relations and have their own unique way of sustaining social bonds in the context of late neoliberalism. The article looks closely at three dynamics of social glue in nonprofit care work, namely, empowerment, emotional/personal costs, and unpaid work. We argue that nonprofit care workers find micro ways of resisting the erosion of social glue and reweaving the social fabric through care and relationship and further that these forms of resistance may sustain much needed social bonds until larger social transformation is possible.

scholarly journals Recommendations for patient engagement in patient-oriented emergency medicine research

CJEM ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M. Archambault ◽  
Colleen McGavin ◽  
Katie N. Dainty ◽  
Shelley L. McLeod ◽  
Christian Vaillancourt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Patient Engagement ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Medicine Research ◽  
Canadian Association ◽  
Knowledge Translation Strategies ◽  
National Patient

AbstractObjectiveTo make pragmatic recommendations on best practices for the engagement of patients in emergency medicine (EM) research.MethodsWe created a panel of expert Canadian EM researchers, physicians, and a patient partner to develop our recommendations. We used mixed methods consisting of 1) a literature review; 2) a survey of Canadian EM researchers; 3) qualitative interviews with key informants; and 4) feedback during the 2017 Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Academic Symposium.ResultsWe synthesized our literature review into categories including identification and engagement, patients’ roles, perceived benefits, harms, and barriers to patient engagement; 40/75 (53% response rate) invited researchers completed our survey. Among respondents, 58% had engaged patients in research, and 83% intended to engage patients in future research. However, 95% stated that they need further guidance to engage patients. Our qualitative interviews revealed barriers to patient engagement, including the need for training and patient partner recruitment.Our panel recommends 1) an overarching positive recommendation to support patient engagement in EM research; 2) seven policy-level recommendations for CAEP to support the creation of a national patient council, to develop, adopt and adapt training material, guidelines, and tools for patient engagement, and to support increased patient engagement in EM research; and 3) nine pragmatic recommendations about engaging patients in the preparatory, execution, and translational phases of EM research.ConclusionPatient engagement can improve EM research by helping researchers select meaningful outcomes, increase social acceptability of studies, and design knowledge translation strategies that target patients’ needs.

Academic Labor: Who Cares?

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Cardozo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Disparate Impact ◽  
Contingent Labor ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Academic Labor ◽  
Diversity Issues ◽  
Labor Issues ◽  
Predominantly Female

This article analyzes the neoliberal turn to contingent labor in academe, specifically the development of a ‘teaching-only’ sector, through the lens of feminist, interdisciplinary and intersectional studies of care work. Integrating discourses on faculty contingency and diversity with care scholarship reveals that the construction of a casualized and predominantly female teaching class in higher education follows longstanding patterns of devaluing socially reproductive work under capitalism. The devaluation of care may also have a disparate impact on the advancement of women within the tenure system. In short, academic labor issues are also diversity issues. To re-value those who care, intersectional alliances must be forged not only between faculty sectors, but also among faculty, care workers in other industries, and members of society who benefit from caring labor.

Formal and informal long term care work: policy conflict in a liberal welfare state

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Murphy ◽  
Thomas Turner
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Formal Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Informal Carers

Purpose The undervaluing of care work, whether conducted informally or formally, has long been subject to debate. While much discussion, and indeed reform has centred on childcare, there is a growing need, particularly in countries with ageing populations, to examine how long-term care (LTC) work is valued. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the way in which employment policies (female labour market participation, retirement age, and precarious work) and social policies (care entitlements and benefits/leave for carers) affect both informal carers and formal care workers in a liberal welfare state with a rapidly ageing population. Design/methodology/approach Drawing the adult worker model the authors use the existing literature on ageing care and employment to examine the approach of a liberal welfare state to care work focusing on both supports for informal carers and job quality in the formal care sector. Findings The research suggests that employment policies advocating increased labour participation, delaying retirement and treating informal care as a form of welfare are at odds with LTC strategies which encourage informal care. Furthermore, the latter policy acts to devalue formal care roles in an economic sense and potentially discourages workers from entering the formal care sector. Originality/value To date research investigating the interplay between employment and LTC policies has focused on either informal or formal care workers. In combining both aspects, we view informal and formal care workers as complementary, interdependent agents in the care process. This underlines the need to develop social policy regarding care and employment which encompasses the needs of each group concurrently.

scholarly journals Ever more parents in polyamorous families: A new materialist typology of parenting practices and division of work

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110374
Author(s):  
Cornelia Schadler
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Standard Family ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Family Models

An analysis of parents that are a part of polyamorous networks—networks of three, four, or even more residential or highly available parents—shows three types of parenting practices: poly-nuclear, hierarchical, and egalitarian parenting. Especially, the hierarchical and egalitarian parenting practices show novel divisions of care work and a transgression of gender norms. However, in-depth new materialist analysis of qualitative interviews also shows how parents are, in specific situations, pushed toward standard family models and thus unintentionally maintain traditional family structures and gender roles.

scholarly journals ‘It’s a real fine balancing act’: directly employed care workers’ experiences of engaging with health services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Wilcock ◽  
Jill Manthorpe ◽  
Jo Moriarty ◽  
Steve Iliffe
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health And Well Being

Little is known of the experiences of directly employed care workers communicating with healthcare providers about the situations of their employers. We report findings from 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews with directly employed care workers in England undertaken in 2018–19. Findings relate to role content, communication with healthcare professionals and their own well-being. Directly employed care workers need to be flexible about the tasks they perform and the changing needs of those whom they support. Having to take on health liaison roles can be problematic, and the impact of care work on directly employed workers’ own health and well-being needs further investigation.

scholarly journals Gendered Articulations of Control and Care on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katinka Linnamäki
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
System Of Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Government

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Hungarian Fidesz-KDNP government´s discursive practices of control and care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper researches the Hungarian government’s communication on the official Hungarian COVID-19 Facebook page during the first wave of the pandemic. Its aim is to answer the question how the Hungarian government articulated control and care to reinforce sedimented gendered division of care work and institutions of control to tackle the potential disruption of the system of care before the widespread vaccination of the elderly population was available in the country. The paper argues that the pandemic has allowed the government to exert control in areas, such as the crisis in the workforce market and health care system, as well as in the destabilized system of care work. The main finding is that in the material the government performs control over care work, whose intensified discussion during the pandemic could lead to a potential disruption within the illiberal logic on two different levels. First, physical care work related to immediate physical needs, like hunger, clothing, pain enacted by female shoppers, female health care workers and female social workers, is newly defined during the pandemic as local, family-bound and a naturally female task. Second, the government articulates care work, either as potentially harmful (for the elderly population and thus indirectly to the government’s familialist politics), or as vulnerable and in need of protection from outside influences (portrayed through the interaction of health care workers and “hospital commanders”). This enables the government to perform full state control over care workers through the mobilization of police and military masculinity and to strengthen and re-naturalize the already existing hierarchies between traditional gender roles from a new perspective during the pandemic. This state of affairs highlights the vulnerability both of the elderly population, on whom its familialism builds, and of the system of informal care work, which builds on the unpaid care work of female citizens, who paradoxically are also articulated as potential harm for the elderly and for the system.

Culture, institution and diverse approaches to care and care work in East Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ito Peng
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Institutional History ◽  
Family Responsibility ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Family ◽  
Private Market ◽  
Care Economy ◽  
Policy Incentives

This article describes two broad approaches to care and care work within a spectrum of approaches that are evident in East Asia: one that accepts care as a core public policy agenda, and tries to leverage it as a potential engine to activate the incipient care economy; and the other, that sees care as strictly private family responsibility, and hence opts to partially underwrite the familial care with a mix of tax and policy incentives through the private market – including creating channels for families to outsource care to foreign migrant care workers. The author uses elder care policies to illustrate ways in which socio-cultural ideas and institutional history shape national policies, and how these policies in turn shape ways in which care is delivered, and care work organized within the family and in the market.

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