The migrant in the market: Care penalties and immigration in eight liberal welfare regimes

Abstract

This article disaggregates high- and low-status care work across eight liberal welfare regimes: Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Using Luxembourg Income Study data, descriptive and multivariate analyses provide support for a ‘migrant in the market’ model of employment, notwithstanding variation across countries. The data demonstrate a wage penalty in both high- and low-status care employment in several liberal welfare regimes, with the latter (service jobs in health, education and social work) more likely to be part-time and situated in the private sector. Migrant care workers are found to work disproportionately in low-status, low-wage types of care and, in some cases, to incur additional wage penalties compared to native-born care workers with equivalent human capital.

An intersectional pathway penalty: Filipina immigrant women inside and outside Canada’s Live‐In Caregiver Program

“…First, we demonstrate that women who came through the LCP made less both initially and over the long term than comparable women arriving via other entry classes. This reinforces prior suggestions of a 'care penalty' and the devalued nature of work in care (Lightman, 2019;Tungohan et al, 2015). Second, we find that Filipina women, as a feminized and racialized immigrant labour force in Canada, have had different labour market trajectories than women from other source countries.…”

“…First, LCP immigrants have far lower income trajectories than comparable FSWP and FC female immigrants, both upon landing and over time in the labour market, whereby the gap widens. Thus, we see concrete evidence of the devaluation of feminized work in care or a 'care penalty' (Lightman, 2019), and the ongoing impact of entering Canada via the LCP. Second, while FSWP and FC female immigrants make similar MEI upon entering the labour market, a gap quickly emerges over time, with FC immigrants earning less on average after only 1 year in the labour market.…”

Caring during the COVID‐19 crisis: Intersectional exclusion of immigrant women health care aides in Canadian long‐term care

“…work as an HCA) and are tied to broader understandings about the undesirability of non‐white individuals as (future) permanent members of society (Sharma, 2006); gendered understandings of care work as essentially a feminine undertaking (England, 2005; Folbre, 2012); and political decisions not to recognize “caring skills” (even when backed with tertiary education credentials in subjects such as nursing) as ones that qualify a person as highly skilled (Boucher, 2020; Elrick & Lightman, 2016). Negative social and economic outcomes are also well documented within care work and are attributed to further intersectional dynamics associated with vulnerable employment conditions; truncated social networks outside the care work sector; and poor pay leading to an inability to finance expensive requalification programs upon migrating in order to achieve social mobility (Lightman, 2019; Lightman et al., 2021; Tungohan et al., 2015).…”

Care earnings in the United States and 24 European countries: The role of social policy and labour market institutions

“…Budig and Misra (2010: 458) argued that government support for the public sector, levels of union membership, and levels of income inequality help to explain part of the cross-national variation in care penalties (see also Lightman & Kevins, 2019). Lightman (2017Lightman ( , 2018Lightman ( , 2019 has pointed to the importance of welfare regime orientations. She finds that migrants and non-migrant workers in low-status nurturant care occupations seem to experience a wage penalty in liberal and conservative welfare regimes, but not in social democratic regimes (Lightman, 2018:10).…”