Les Infirmieres Exclusives and Migrant Quasi-Nurses in Greece

Abstract

The article explores the complex experiences and positions of migrant women in the 'nursing profession' in a southern European country, Greece. It looks at ways in which a rudimentary welfare state and a large informal economy have created the demand for les infirmières exclusives and for 'quasi-nurses'. The supply and use of their services, on the one hand, helps perpetuate this informal welfare system and, on the other, has implications for migrant women themselves as, inter alia, it contributes to their deskilling, exploitation, marginalization and exclusion. The multifarious degrees and forms that these processes take, to a large extent, depend on the cross-cutting of gender, ethnicity and class, as sexism intersects with different forms of 'othering' and racialization processes in the destination country. The position of these women is also located in terms of ethnic and national boundaries.

Migration and Irregular Work in Austria : A Case Study of the Structure and Dynamics of Irregular Foreign Employment in Europe at the Beginning of the 21st Century

“…In the past two decades, feminist migration researchers have made a great effort to investigate the global trend of outsourcing unpaid family work to paid migrant domestic workers (see e.g. Anderson 2000 andLutz 2008 for Europe; Caixeta et al 2004 for Austria), caregivers and nurses (Gendera 2007;Lazaridis 2007;Yeates 2006). Studies, investigating the international division of reproductive labour (Parreñas 2001) generally look at intersections of gender, ethnicity and class, migration and welfare policies (Sciortino 2004a) in structuring the feminisation of migration.…”

Service interaction and dignity in cleaning work: how important is the organizational context?

“…It is important to bear in mind that policies regarding gender equality, family and care, although they can be neatly approached as distinct issues of public intervention, are uniquely bound up in their practical outcomes (Crompton and Le Feuvre, 2000;Rubery, 2002). The countries of southern Europe provide a critical illustration of this relation, as impressive accomplishments in women's rights over the last decades remain in conflict with limited supportive policies concerning childcare and eldercare, an issue with implications for both labor demand and supply in domestic service occupations (Catarino and Oso, 2000;Crompton, 2006;Lazaridis, 2007;Wall and Nunes, 2010;Le on, 2010).…”

Recruiting migrant nurses to fill the gaps: the contribution of migrant women in the nursing care sector in Greece

“…In the absence of core health care staff, the overwhelming majority of patients entering the Greek health system must personally employ a sole-agent nurse. Sole-agent nurses are supplied by what is in the main reserve of female and increasingly immigrant female labour (Lazaridis 2006). Payment for this service is additional to that outlayed for services in the public medical system.…”

“…This also holds for scholarship exploring recruitment tactics and available entry portals for immigrant women into the Greek health sector (Lazaridis 2006). By drawing on empirical evidence, the paper provides refreshing insights into the labour market experience of immigrant women in this labour market sphere.…”

“…The research examines the complex nature of the health sector labour market with a focus on the nursing care sector in Greece, which is providing a viable arena for the absorption of newly arrived migrants (ANT 1, Apothixis 2007;Lazaridis 2006;To Vima 2002). Female migrants entering Greece are providing a ready and economically viable source of sole-agent carers.…”