«Good Pay for Good Work»? Legitimation and Criticism in the Regulation Process of Round-the-Clock Elderly Care in Swiss Private Households

Steiner, Jennifer

doi:10.2478/sjs-2020-0015

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…In Switzerland, live-in home care workers are mainly employed in households with seniors in need of care. Typically, it is private, for-profit employment agencies that recruit the workers in Eastern Europe and place them in Swiss households (Schilliger 2014;Steiner 2020). These agencies act as migration brokers and play a key role in shaping the mobility and the working conditions of the workers.…”

Section: Global and Uneven Distribution Of Care: Migration Gender And Social Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Who shapes migration in open labour markets? Analysing migration infrastructures and brokers of circularly migrating home care workers in Switzerland

Chau

Schwiter

2021

Mobilities

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Fostered by the free movement of workers agreement in the Schengen area, a new market for live-in care work has emerged. Private for-profit care agencies recruit circular migrant women from Eastern Europe and place them in private households for senior care in Western Europe. This paper looks at the recruitment and placement practices of these agencies. Drawing on concepts on migration infrastructures and a politics of mobility, we argue that these agencies are key drivers in the production of new migration infrastructures tailored to live-in carers' circular mobility patterns. This infrastructure intersects with existing work, gender and care regimes, and works in ways that enclose care workers in the households, ensuring their return home after an assignment. It shapes their migration as a form of movement characterized by repeated short-term and 'just-in-time' jobs. This requires care workers to be mobile, flexible and disposable. Hence, care agencies play an important role in perpetuating an unequal distribution of care along lines of gender and socio-economic inequalities. The findings point to fundamental changes in migration control in the Schengen area with private actors such as care agencies gaining new powers in determining who and under which conditions workers migrate.

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Section: Global and Uneven Distribution Of Care: Migration Gender And Social Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Who shapes migration in open labour markets? Analysing migration infrastructures and brokers of circularly migrating home care workers in Switzerland

Chau

Schwiter

2021

Mobilities

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Geographies of care work: The commodification of care, digital care futures and alternative caring visions

Schwiter

Steiner

2020

Geography Compass

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This article explores the growing interest in care within geography. Focusing on care as waged work, we trace current transformations through commodification and digitalisation. We discuss how the private household is turning into a precarious and feminised workplace for a growing number of workers, and we show how this development is promoted by the rise of labour agencies that facilitate the transnational recruitment of care workers. The literature on global care chains illustrates how the recruitment of migrant workers fills care deficits in destination countries while opening up care gaps in sending countries. We review this literature from economic geography and beyond and reflect on the continuing feminisation and devaluation of care labour. Based on these critical insights, we examine how processes of digitalisation contribute to reshaping care work. We discuss the ambivalent effects of digital technologies on care and argue that there is an urgent need to intensify our engagement with the processes and effects of digital transformations. In our conclusions, we call for strengthening the budding debate on alternative visions of caring within geography and point to avenues for future engagement.

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«Good Pay for Good Work»? Legitimation and Criticism in the Regulation Process of Round-the-Clock Elderly Care in Swiss Private Households

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Who shapes migration in open labour markets? Analysing migration infrastructures and brokers of circularly migrating home care workers in Switzerland

Who shapes migration in open labour markets? Analysing migration infrastructures and brokers of circularly migrating home care workers in Switzerland

Geographies of care work: The commodification of care, digital care futures and alternative caring visions

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