In Italy, as in most Mediterranean countries, the care of beloved (elderly) family members is mainly sustained by kinship, which has according consequences for their involvement at the local labour market. Consequently, live-in care assistance schemes by external caregivers provide an alternative, that is considered a respectful, dignified option for substituting kinship labour, if expected moral and affective standards are met. We witness thus not solely an increasing demand of domestic care work (contemporary mainly satisfied by migrant labour) but also rising expectations towards the professional segment. These regard for instance particular socio-relational skills of the caretaker to build a trustworthy relationship with their older patients. In line with this development, Baldassar et al. (2017) investigate the affective dimension of care work and conceptualise evolving relations between caretakers and -givers as
kinning processes, that presume kinship to be negotiated and not existent a priori. Especially for in-house care work this aspect becomes crucial given the blurry distinction between private and work life, the level of utmost intimacy between employer and employee, and the consequent fading lines of hierarchy.
Building on these premises, this study puts the perspective of female migrant domestic care workers in Turin, Italy at the forefront using data from in-depth interviews with 28 Romanian women. It analyses hence developed kinning relations between them and their patients and adopts the linked lives principle to study how they mutually affect their further lives and those of their (transnational) family members. In this vein, the care circulation construct is highly relevant, as this research questions the agency of developed affective, moral and loyal sentiments. In other words, I question how they circulate and thus (1) affect caregiver and -taker during and after their collaboration and (2) how they influence migration decisions and caregiving to left-behind family members.
