The intersection of social and migration policies: The situation of migrant care workers

Care and migration are two of the most important issues of contemporary European welfare states. Demographic developments and changing family structures have fostered the employment of (mainly female) migrant workers in national care arrangements. The increasing demand for care workers and differences between the salaries in the destination countries and in the countries of origin are main motives for the increase in migration (Kofman et al. 2000; Sassen 2003). In some countries, they are mainly used as cheap labour in undeclared work or precarious forms of formal employment in private households, even if many of these women have a professional or academic background (Lutz 2008a; Pfau-Effinger 2009; Flaquer & Escobedo 2009). In other countries, migrant care workers might be included in the formal employment systems on equal terms with the native care workers. Thus, migration regimes and care arrangements are intertwined (Lutz 2008; Williams & Gavanas 2008).

 This paper attempts an interdisciplinary and multi-national analysis of the intersection of care regimes and migration regimes in three European countries (Austria, the Netherlands, UK). Since it is assumed that the position of migrant workers employed in European care systems is defined and shaped by the intersection and interrelation of national social policy and migration regimes the challenge is to theoretically, methodologically and empirically grasp the (social) policies of both care and migration on the one hand and the moral, social, economic, political and cultural contexts on the other hand. To enable an operationalisation of the research project two conceptual frameworks will be utilised in order to capture the specifics of national regimes influencing the societal positioning of migrant workers: care regimes and migration regimes. The paper tries to provide a conceptualisation of the operationalisation of these concepts and its intersection in relation to migrant care workers.