Final Report Summary - CAREMIG (Caring Labour in a Migrating World)
The organization of care for the elderly at the beginning of the 21st century in most European countries can be characterised by ageing societies in combination with a change in family structures and practices. Since demographic developments have caused challenges to national arrangements for elderly care one answer to these new and intensifying demands has been the employment of migrants in the field of care in both formal employments in the service sector and in private households. In that sense, migration may be seen as providing answers to some of the societal developments (ageing societies, changing care arrangements); it is, however, at the same time posing new challenges (diversified needs of care receivers, equality issues, recruitment of migrants for undeclared care work to avoid taxation and social security contributions etc). The project CAREMIG (Caring Labour in a Migrating World) has sought to investigate this crucial field as a nexus of social, migration and employment policies and personal trajectories and narratives. The analysis has started from the premise that the situation of migrant care workers can only be grasped by analysing the political, economic, social and cultural framework in which the employment is taking place. National arrangements are understood to be defining and shaping the situation of those working in the specific field of elderly care
One explicit aim of the project has been to develop a new methodological and analytical conceptualisation to study the moral, social, economic, political and cultural context of caring, in which migrants work, by investigating both national policy regimes and people’s reflections on their work- and migration trajectories. The research process has demonstrated that an analysis of policies and their intersections needs to be preceded by an investigation of the personal trajectories and situations of migrant care workers. For this endeavour a two-folded methodological framework has been constructed: First, semi-structured, narrative interviews with 65 migrant care workers in three different European welfare states (Austria, Netherlands, UK) representing different care, migration and employment regimes have been held. Brought diversity in terms of age, professional role, ward and field of work, gender, nationality and experience has been secured. Through an intersectional analysis national specifities and characteristics of the professional and migration trajectories, as well as the professional status of migrant care workers have been investigated. In a second step policy analysis could then provide a more focused, specific framework to identify the processes and mechanisms which are based within a political, economic, social and cultural framework that construct and shape the role and status of migrant care workers. Critical Frame Analysis has furthermore been utilized in this process to identify the use of social categories and identities and in particular the interrelations of the various categorizations.
Additionally to the investigation of the situation and positionality of migrant care workers within national policy regimes a macro perspective has been adopted in order to grasp the differences and similarities of national regimes in shaping the employment situation of migrant care workers, both in the formal and the informal sector. Fuzzy set methodology has been utilized to allow this integrated analysis of the two sectors of care provision and the effects and impact of the intersections of various policy fields. While the macro analysis has included nine different European welfare states the qualitative analysis has focused on three distinct cases: Netherlands, UK and Austria. The latter case has also functioned as a pilot case for several in-depth investigations which will be extended to the other cases in the future. In that sense the project has sought to combine the micro level of individual narratives, experiences and reflections, the meso level of specific organizational regulations, structures and practices and the macro level of societal regimes including political, social and cultural conditions.
The analysis has shown how different intersecting policies in the fields of migration, care and employment lead to different migrant work patterns. In particular public expenditure on care services represents a crucial element of shaping the employment situation of migrant workers in both institutional settings and private households. The interviews with migrant care workers have demonstrated the importance of the interplay between national structures, organizational practices and individual trajectories. Both migration and professional trajectories are influenced, shaped and defined by national and organizational structures and actual practices. The following migration and professional trajectories could be identified:
Migration trajectories: Asylum seeker/refugee; Labour migration; Other migration (love, family, studying); EU migrant; Commuter (living in one country – working in another country)
Professional trajectories: Recruited as (health) care worker in country of origin; Qualified in home country; School/training in new country; Followed (higher) health care / medical training; Care work as only possibility
Importantly, various intersections of migration and professional trajectories are possible, which are influenced by and, at the same time, shaping the national employment patterns of migrant care workers. Similarly the migration trajectory can influence the professional trajectory and vice versa. This project has described migrant care workers as facing disadvantages and vulnerability for two reasons: working in a gendered profession with a poor social reputation and a lack of defined boundaries, and reflecting a group of workers who are also due to their migrant status defined differently (in terms of citizenship and employment rights and possibilities). In particular it has been argued that the positionality of migrant care workers is strongly influenced by the professional role and status related to the position. However, professional role and status cannot be identified independently from other social structures and identities. The intersectional analysis has enabled an understanding of what social-, migration- and employment policies and regimes mean in specific political, social and cultural circumstances. By basing the policy analysis on an intersectional investigation of migrant care workers it could be demonstrated that the specific national circumstances which underlie the employment of migrant workers in the field of care strongly define and shape the possibilities for migrant carers to establish and experience a higher level of professional status.
Additionally to the shaping of and consequences for the professional positionality the conditions and configurations of the national migration regimes appeared significant in several ways. Apart from regulations and policies in relation to immigration, work permits and citizenship historical relations between people’s countries of origins and their current places of work and life have been identified as influential. The project has investigated in how far various national historical contingences shape the construction of different understandings and practices of gender, class, status, nationality and ethnicity (and, importantly, their intersections). In Austria for example, many care workers were born in countries that used to belong to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Migration links between Austria and these countries have existed ever since (for instance in the context of guest worker schemes and later in relation to particular possibilities for Bosnian refugees during the Yugoslavian war). Both migration (in terms of routes, communities and regulations) and professional (in terms of employment opportunities and permits) trajectories are influenced by these historical links and continuities. In this context it has thus been argued that the positionality of migrant care workers is strongly influenced by post-colonial, post-imperial and self-imperialist constructions, imaginations and practices.
The results of this project bear important implications for both the research community (in the field of care and migration studies and beyond) and policy makers. Important knowledge about the link between care and migration regimes and policies and the significance of national social, political, historical and cultural configurations should be able to sensitize policy making on a national and, importantly, European level. Awareness should be raised about the consequences of (changes of) policies and, particularly, the interrelation of various policy fields. Finally, the project has shown how political, cultural and social histories impact on both policies and people’s positionality and situation today. By focusing on people’s individual trajectories and the interrelatedness of people’s care and migration trajectories relevant policies and policy fields could be identified. It could be shown, for example, in how far differences in the job description of care workers (and/or nurses) between people’s countries of origin and the countries of residence impact on the (self-perceived) professional status of migrant care workers. Apart from the politically, economically and socially significant investigation of the position of migrant care workers this project has thus applied an interesting and productive approach in the study of the intersection of care regimes and migration regimes which can furthermore act as a tool for important future investigations combining political, economic, social and cultural perspectives.
For more information about the project and further results please contact:
Bernhard Weicht, Social Policy and Intervention Studies,
Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University
b.weicht@uu.nl