The Invisible Hand of Care: A Typology of Brokerage Actors in Migrant Care Labour

Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck, Ivanna Kyliushyk and Roxana Fiebig-Spindler
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Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck: Institute of Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Ivanna Kyliushyk: Centre for Research on Social Change and Human Mobility, Kozminski University, Poland
Roxana Fiebig-Spindler: Institute of Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Providing senior care is one of the most pressing challenges in a rapidly ageing Europe, particularly in the Central and Eastern European region, which remains largely a care‐sending area. Poland has emerged as a trans‐European hub for long‐term care, acting as a sending, receiving, and transit country, driven by commercial and non‐commercial migrant brokerage. Brokerage actors play a central role in facilitating the employment of live‐in care workers across Europe. In this article, we present an empirical typology of brokerage actors in the care sector, categorising them according to two dimensions: formalisation and commodification. This typology captures a broad range of actors, from informal migrant networks and individual brokers, through semi‐formal actors such as self‐organised caregiver groups and social media platforms, to formalised institutions such as civil society organisations, public employment offices, and commercial agencies. Using this typology, we examine how and why formalised informality is increasing within the care economy, under what circumstances, and with what consequences for carers’ working conditions. While marketisation has introduced formalising effects on enterprises and labour relations, this is not a one‐way path towards decent work. Rather, formalisation itself often generates new forms of informal practices and precarities.

Keywords: brokerage actors; Central and Eastern Europe; (de)commodification; Germany; (in)formalisation; migrant workers; Poland; senior care; Ukraine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11953

DOI: 10.17645/si.11953

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