Migrant Care Workers, Skill Regimes, and Transnational Subjects in East Asia

Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies - Recent Social, Environmental, and Cultural Issues in East Asian Societies ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-1807-6.ch010 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 169-187

Author(s):

Reiko Ogawa

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Career Development ◽

East Asia ◽

Care Work ◽

Migration Process ◽

Short Term ◽

Great Expectations ◽

Permanent Residence ◽

Care Workers ◽

Care Labor

This chapter discusses the concept of skills in care work and demonstrates how it has been discursively constructed in Japan and Taiwan. The kind of work that the migrant care workers undertake is differentiated according to the migration-care nexus resulting in very different kind of tasks these migrants are required to perform. Secondly, the global care labor market is unevenly constructed with different requirements and conditions. The migrant care workers are differentiated according to the capital they possess and what they acquire in their migration process. What became apparent is that unlike skilled work where people can step-up their career by gaining skills and in some cases permanent residence, care labor market in East Asia does not lead to unilateral development of careers. The global care labor market expanded the opportunity for migrants, but it is not only uneven but also precarious and migrants expect short-term return without great expectations for career development.

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

Current Sociology ◽

10.1177/0011392118765211 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 66 (4) ◽

pp. 643-659 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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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Transforming Bodywork in Eldercare with Wash-and- dry Toilets

Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies ◽

10.18291/njwls.v9is5.112689 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (S5) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Agnete Meldgaard Hansen ◽

Sidsel Lond Grosen

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

Care Work ◽

Public Governance ◽

Great Expectations ◽

Body Work ◽

Care Workers ◽

Theoretical Frame ◽

Professional Care ◽

Work First

This paper addresses how the introduction of welfare technologies in Denmark makes the body- work of eldercare an object of public governance, and investigates how wash-and-dry toilets co-constitute professional care work. First, a theoretical frame is established for studying care, with an emphasis on bodywork as a sociomaterial and collective accomplishment. The paper then unfolds the great expectations tied to welfare technologies in general, and wash-and-dry toilets specifically. Turning to differentiated examples of situated uses of the toilets, the complexity of making the toilets work within the context of professional eldercare is illustrated. Some of the uses of the toilets in care work are in concordance with policy expectations. Other uses demonstrate difficulties in satisfying the great expectations and call for a more complex understanding of what it takes to achieve dignified, technologically assisted care without silencing the skills and profes- sionalism of care workers.

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Creating a Gendered-Racialized Care Labor Market: Migrant Labor Policy and the Transformation of Care Work in Taiwan

Gender, Care and Migration in East Asia ◽

10.1007/978-981-10-7025-9_7 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 139-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Li-Fang Liang

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Labor Policy ◽

Care Work ◽

Migrant Labor ◽

Care Labor

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Academic Labor: Who Cares?

Critical Sociology ◽

10.1177/0896920516641733 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 405-428 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

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.

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Care-Arbeit und Care-Berufe

Evangelische Theologie ◽

10.14315/evth-2021-810610 ◽

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.

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

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy ◽

10.1108/ijssp-06-2015-0069 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 37 (3/4) ◽

pp. 134-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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.

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

International Journal of Care and Caring ◽

10.1332/239788221x16099486601224 ◽

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.

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Economic Factors of the Intensifying the Migration Process

The Journal of Social Sciences Research ◽

10.32861/jssr.spi5.241.244 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 241-244

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Social Factors ◽

Economic Factors ◽

Migration Process ◽

Demand Structure ◽

Market Economic ◽

Migration Potential ◽

Main Factors ◽

Migration Theories ◽

The Impact

The factors influencing the intensification of the migration process have been considered since the appearance of the first migration theories. These factors determine both the potential migration opportunities and the actual conditions for the implementation of the migration process. Among the main factors that determine the intensity of the migration process, basic are the factors formed by the labor market (economic factors). Despite a number of migration theories that consider other factors, such as the demand structure, psychological and social factors, we determine the impact of precisely the economic factors (factors formed in the labor market) as the most significant. In today’s world, when determining the intensity and main directions of migration, the economic factors are taken into account by the majority of migrants. At the same time, indirect factors play an important role in the analysis of the migration process. Indirect factors, determining the basic conditions for the intensification of the migration process, form the potential for migration. Potential migration opportunities form an environment that determines the potential number of migrants. Indirect factors include not only the parameters of the development of the national economy as a whole, but also the parameters of the development of individual regions or territories that form the migration attractiveness of these regions.

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