Social Innovation in Home-Based Eldercare: Strengths and Shortcomings of Integrating Migrant Care Workers into Long-Term Care in Tuscany

Marlene Seiffarth () and Giulia Aureli
Additional contact information
Marlene Seiffarth: SOCIUM, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Giulia Aureli: SOCIUM, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: Italy is one of the main receiving countries of migrant care workers in Europe. Its migrant-in-the-family model has developed since the 1990s, and, today, home-based eldercare is unimaginable without the work of the almost one million care workers employed in private households, of whom over 75% are migrants. Despite forming one of the most important pillars of eldercare provision in the country, the employment of migrant care workers is not addressed in national policy. However, regional policymaking is far from inactive in the face of growing gaps in care as regions and municipalities play a crucial role in regulating, organising, and providing eldercare. With a focus on comprehensive solutions, cross-sector collaborations, and interactive learning processes, social innovation becomes an important element in reforming eldercare in the context of institutional inertia, fragmentation, and permanent austerity. In what ways are regions using social innovation to respond to challenges in eldercare provision and integrate migrant care workers? This study is based on interviews with experts from the region of Tuscany, which is running the project Pronto Badante (emergency care worker). The results suggest several advantages of local interventions breaking with the institutional silo mentality, as well as ongoing challenges regarding the impact and sustainability of these interventions.

Keywords: social innovation; long-term care; home-based care; migrant care workers; Italy; Tuscany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10602/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10602/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10602-:d:897313

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().