Making the Invisible Visible: The Pandemic and Migrant Care Work in Long-Term Care

Kai Leichsenring, Selma Kadi and Cassandra Simmons
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Kai Leichsenring: European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, 17 1090 Vienna, Austria
Selma Kadi: European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, 17 1090 Vienna, Austria
Cassandra Simmons: European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, 17 1090 Vienna, Austria

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Live-in care, provided by mainly female migrants, has developed as a do-it-yourself welfare mechanism—hardly regulated, with undefined working times, singular labour relations and widely untraceable cash flows. Migrant carers are isolated, working in a ‘grey’ area, torn between the family in which they are working and the individual person in need of care, and very often they are also dependent on brokering agencies. The aim of this contribution is therefore to describe and analyse how the pandemic has made hidden inequalities more visible in connection with the specificities of live-in migrant care in Austria, Italy and Spain. Findings are based on a brief scoping review, including national media coverage. Results are described in terms of national caveats and strategies to respond to challenges triggered by the pandemic. Mitigating short-term strategies were implemented under pressure and at short notice, mainly influenced by the national framework conditions of live-in migrants in the respective countries. In spite of upcoming political debates regarding the regularisation of live-in care, including issues of wages and working conditions, the visibility of migrant live-in care remains tightly connected to the further development of care regimes and the acknowledgement of unpaid work as a precondition for gender equality and equal opportunities in a European and subsequently in a global dimension.

Keywords: migrant care work; pandemic; inequalities; long-term care; Austria; Italy; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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