Bridging social distances in home care in super-diverse settings: a study of workers, clients and care organisations in the Netherlands

Abstract

Migration-driven super-diversity is creating new challenges for equitable access to care in many European welfare states. To provide good care for all, care workers must bridge different kinds of social distance to build trusting relationships. Qualitative research within two home-care organisations in the same super-diverse neighbourhoods in the Netherlands reveals the strategies used by home-care workers to do so, as well as to maintain distance when their professionalism is threatened. However, the ability of care organisations and their employees to provide good relational care to all is constrained by the national standardisation of care within the welfare state.

Editorial

“…Our first article is from the Netherlands. In 'Bridging social distances in home care in super-diverse settings: a study of workers, clients and care organisations in the Netherlands', Monique Kremer (2023) (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) discusses how 'migration-driven super-diversity' is affecting access to care in European welfare states. Based on qualitative research undertaken in two home-care organisations in the same, 'super-diverse' neighbourhood, Kremer explores how home-care workers, in the pursuit of providing good care for all, must bridge different kinds of social distance to build trusting relationships.…”