138
The Work of Care: Ageing, Inequalities and Supply of Care Workers
The Work of Care: Ageing, Inequalities and Supply of Care Workers
Wednesday, 13 July 2016: 09:00-10:30
Location: Hörsaal BIG 1 (Main Building)
RC11 Sociology of Aging (host committee) Language: English
Increased reliance on migrant care workers is often thought to be predicated on care deficit, i.e. growing need for care in ageing populations with fewer familial (women) caregivers as family sizes shrink and more women work in the paid labour market. But is participation in transnational and within countries care work also related to the potential supply of care workers?
In this session, a team of researchers working together as part of a large research project on Gender, Migration and the Work of Care, examine the multiple factors and ways that the work of care is connected to global and national inequalities. Our specific geographical focus is on North America and Pacific Rim countries.
A mosaic emerges with women from LDCs (least developed countries) sent out as care workers to fill their homeland’s coffers with remittances, of women who migrate to MDCs (more developed countries) in the hope of having professional credentials recognized but take up care work when this fails, of elders who migrate from MDCs seeking less expensive care in LDCs, of calculated recruitment of care workers, sometimes temporary, to work in care facilities in MDCs, and of marriage markets that supply care workers for in-laws in receiving countries.
Inequalities contour each of these scenarios. Transnational care workers may be in increasing supply, whether they migrate or remain in their home countries. The potential supply of care workers may be as important, or more important, than the demand evidenced through the care deficit concept.
INVITED SESSION NOT OPENED FOR ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION.
Session Organizer: