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Migration and Care: Themes, Concepts and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2010

Fiona Williams
Fiona Williams*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds E-mail: J.F.Williams@leeds.ac.uk
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Extract

The phenomenon of migrant workers finding domestic and care work in the homes and institutions of countries wealthier than their own uncovers much about social change in the twenty-first century. First, it reveals the consequences of women taking on more responsibilities to earn income but without a significant rebalancing of their care responsibilities either with male partners or through state support. In the poorer regions of the world, unemployment, violence, poverty and aspirations for a better life push some women into emigrating to earn for their families. This also exposes an asymmetrical geopolitical solution to the so-called ‘care deficit’ pursued by richer states, accentuated by the demographics of ageing societies and restructured welfare regimes on the one side, and the care crises in the poorer regions on the other. The transnational movement of (mainly) women into care and domestic work, as well as nurses, pharmacists and doctors into health care saves social expenditure costs while intensifying the lack of care resources in the countries of origin of those migrant workers.

Type
Themed Section on Domestic and Care Work at the Intersection of Welfare, Gender and Migration Regimes
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 385 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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