Loving carer or skilled worker: The social, political and economics construction of migrant care workers

Demographic developments have caused challenges to national arrangements for elderly care. In many countries one answer to these demands has been the employment of migrants in the field of care. The position of (mainly female) migrant workers employed in European care systems is defined and shaped by the intersection and interrelation of national social policy and migration regimes embedded in specific economic, political and cultural contexts. Care and migration regimes will be analysed in their conceptualisation of and consequences for migrant women working in the elderly care sector.

 This paper adopts an explicitly intersectional approach to analyse the construction of the position of migrant care workers in three different European welfare states (Austria, Netherlands, UK). The situation can only be grasped by analysing the political, economic, social and cultural framework in which the employment is taking place. Critical Discourse Analysis in combination with Critical Frame Analysis will be utilised to identify the use of social categories and identities and in particular the interrelations of the various categorisations. For an analysis of political conceptualisations of social actors and social positions Nancy Fraser’s work will be utilised. This approach draws on an essential incorporation of perspectives on the consequences of any social and political process, with regards to redistribution, recognition and political participation. The strength and the importance of Fraser’s position lie in the recognition that both the economic situation and the status order in society determine people’s life circumstances. Migrant care workers are confronted with demands, stereotypes and definitions which are based on an intersection of their status, gender, ethnicity, national background and work position. The paper tries to identify the consequences of policy constructions for the particular experiences in the relation to the work situation and citizenship status in social, cultural and economic terms.