Converging variations in migrant care work in Europe

an article by Fiona Williams (University of Leeds and University of New South Wales, Australia) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 22 Number 4 (October 2012)

Abstract

While the employment of migrant women as care workers in European welfare states is increasing, the rate, extent and nature of this increase varies.

The article draws on empirical research on migrant care work to develop links between three levels of analysis – micro, meso and macro.

The main aim is to progress analysis of the meso level by developing indicators attached to three sets of régimes – care régimes, migration r&eactue;gimes and employment régimes.

It is argued that variations emerge in the ways these three régimes intersect within any one country. These intersections allow us to look across different sites, markets and sectors of care work and, in so doing, reveal a degree of growing convergence across Europe in the employment of migrant care labour. This convergence contributes, at the macro level, to a transnational political economy of care.

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