Migrant Care Workers: Presentation of the book

12 May 2015City University London

Disability and Inclusion SeminarKaren Christensen

2005/06: a comparative study on welfare services particularly for disabled people

Comparative study into the personal assistance scheme (alternative to traditional home based services) in Norway and UK

Problem: self-determination/user-power versus care services for those dependent on help

-Implications of implementing a welfare scheme based on user control, for the disabled people, for the assistants and for relationships – and in which direction is the scheme moving in Norway/UK?

Develops from an earlier study

Only migrants, only care workers Gender a main dimension Live story interviews (care work one part) Less focus on the personal assistance scheme

per se More focus on context

Problem: How do migrant care workers develop their transnational lives within the conditions they face in Norway and the UK?

The «new» project

Ageing society-The Greying of Europe; EU-report 2012:one third of the population will be 65+ in 2060 – increasing pressure on the whole social care sector; a need for labour force

Migration- Historically, no new phenomenon, but today

more different motivations like war in home country, difficulties finding work/maintain a wage, and the wish of a live style not possible in one’s home country

Global context

Migration: ◦ Migration in stead of emigration/immigration◦ ‘Circular migration’ (Parreñas 2010)

Care ◦ Active citizenship ◦ The idea about ‘independence’ (Fraser & Gordon 1994)◦ New structural conditions for care workers

Gender◦ ‘Doing gender’ ◦ Intersectionality (class, gender, ethnicity intersecting)

Main concepts

Contribution to changing a one-sidedness:1) Feminisation of migration (focus on global women; a

women’s perspective)2) ‘Outsourcing of reproductive work’ (focus on

domestic work/and domestic workers)3) Theoretically: ‘Global care chains’ (Hochschild 2000);

(focus on North-South problem; exploitation)

From: women, exploitation and victims Towards: active agents: ‘a new type of migrant’ – realises own life projects , within or in spite of given

conditions

The literature the book responds to:

Live history interviews (Elder 1985)-relation between individual lives and historical time-each life story is a unique case-each life story is also a case representing something more

(e.g. East-European woman in the UK)

Interview questions:1) Background story from home country (childhood, family growing up in,

education history)2) Circumstances around the decision of migration and experiences with

access to Norway/UK3) Experiences of living in N/UK and particularly care work4) Future plans5) More + and why they were willing to be interviewed

Methodology

The empirical material (Norway and UK)

Women

OutsideEU/EEA

EU/EEA

Men

Criteria for selection:

-Adults, men and women-Born outside N/UK (in accordance with the N/SSB definition)-Came to N/UK when adults (transnational experiences)-Experiences with home based care work and in particular personal

assistance work

2 x 5 2 x 5

2 x 52 x 5

NORWAY UK  Women Men Women Men

EU/EEA countriesMarija, Lithuania

Anna, Poland

Lena, Switzerland

Ona, Lithuania

Adriana, Romania

Elena, Lithuania

 

István, Hungary

Peter, Germany

Adrijan, Croatia

 

Eszter, Hungary

Ilona, Hungary

Joana, Portugal

Michaela, Slovakia

Tereza, Czech

Republic

Zofia, Poland

Liis, Estonia

Linda, Latvia

Florenzia, Spain

Adrian, Romania

Ivan, Bulgaria

Marcin, Poland

Vladislav, Slovakia

Outside EU/EEAAmphon, Thailand

Mariam, Ethiopia

Rosita, Peru

Imee, Philippines

Albina, Russia

Natalia, Argentina

Abbay, Ethiopia

Alvar, Argentina

Bahati, Burundi

Heydar, Iran

Soledad, Cuba

Adanya, Nigeria

Andrea, Ecuador

Blanca, Columbia

Brenda, Uganda

Cynthia, Zimbabwe

Hazel, Zimbabwe

Kimona, Jamaica

Neema, Tanzania

Rhea, India

Tamanna, Bangladesh

Tamilore, Nigeria

Tina, Liberia

Nicole, South Africa

Isaac, Uganda

Kannan, Sri Lanka

Patrick, South

Africa

Prince, South

Africa

Joshua, South

Africa

51 live-stories -89 inter-view-hours + 3 hours con-text inter-views

Norway UK

Number: 20

Age: 25-49

Years in N: 1 - 28

Number: 31

Age: 19-59

Years in UK: 0.2 - 20

PA experiences: 20Other care work experiences also from au pair, kindergarden, nursing home, home help etc.

Hours/week: 10-37.5

PA experiences: 28 Other care work experiences also from au pair, voluntary work, work at institutions for older people, nursing home etc.

Hours/week: 10-5015 experiences with live-in work (24/7 e.g. 3 weeks on, 1 week off)

The 51(work)migrants

The chapters

Norway UK• Welfare state with long-lasting

social democratic traditions

• No colonialism history

• Migration has become a central aspect (EU/EEA friendsly)

• Gender-equality an important value

• Care sector is homogeneous with the public as its main actor

• Recruitment problems

• Welfare state that since Thatcher has changed towards increasing market based solutions (unlike NHS)

• Has a strong colonialism history/imperialistic past

• Migration has become a strong tendency since WWII (strong point system for those from ex-EU)

• Maintained a tradition for family responsibility (strengthened by Cameron’s ‘Big society’ idea)

• Social care sector (Adult Social Care Sector) is very heterogeneous; many ‘care-agencies’ + ‘self-funders’ + ‘live-in work’

• Recruitment problems

Different life course choices: Stable Norway versus the ‘try-

one’s-luck’ land UK

Discovering a hidden

land in the North

(‘strong’ reasons for

coming) Choosing an international junction (a choice, but more specific reasons for

coming)

UK: Migration

N: Settlement

Prince, 26 from South Africa (UK example of the ‘migration’ live course)

I liked working closely with people and I had good relationships, and I think the reason why I sort of stopped … is because I realized I could do this forever … but I needed to start looking at actually building a career … care work was only going to be good for me if I saved the money you know … [if] you live with a person and your costs are covered you can save a lot of money … I did save a lot of money but the thing was I was spending my money on travelling [laughing].

If ever something goes wrong in marketing or South Africa – maybe there is a big economic crisis or the government goes bad. My first thing that I would do is to go back to the UK and do caring, because I have got experience and I have got all the contacts there.

From middle class to low-status care work

Hazel (50, Zimbabwe), from middle class in Zimbabwe to: a black minority group female

worker: Hazel: …our [she and her daughter] first job we worked in, that was the worst thing for me ever because I had never done manual work. So it was the time that I had to face reality. …

Karen: Was it easy to find work here when you came?

Hazel: No, no, all the agencies here when I tried to go and put my CV: “Do you have UK experience?” “No”. “We need you to have UK experience”. Everything UK experience…no one is willing to give you UK experience …Nowhere. The only place where they don’t need UK experience is when you do manual jobs …

‘Deskilling, derouting, discrimination’

Different strategies for meeting the downwards social mobility

Norway UK‘Deskilling’ central (difficult to get recognition of education from home country)

‘Deskilling’ central too, but additionally the subjective experience of downwards mobility much stronger

Strategy: • ‘Coping with troubling

language’

Strategies:• ‘Self-employment’• Finding another way towards

an ‘upwards moving escalator’ (Nicole, 53, South Africa is hiding her nurse education for the agency and starts from scratch with NVQ etc.; Eszter, 31, Hungary, is collecting ‘cases’ for an internet based PhD)

Marcin (59, Poland): From MA in agriculture to care work in an institution

Gendered care worker profiles

Traditional roles in the UK – untraditional roles in Norway

Constructing relationship typologies

Dimensions:Hierarchical/asymmetric --- equal/symmetricCharacter of the interaction and emotion involved

Three typologies:

Professional friendship: symmetric and less emotional involvement

Companionship: symmetric/asymmetric and some emotional involvement

Master/servant relationship: hierarchical/asymmetric and much emotional involvement

Typologies of relationships

Title: different from discussion ‘integration into a foreign culture’

Point of departure in two classic sociological texts (representing a positive view)◦ Georg Simmel about ‘The Stranger’ (1908)

The idea about two-sidedness in this role (inside and outside)

◦ Alfred Schutz about ‘The Stranger’ (1944) Limited knowledge of ‘usual thinking’ -and of ‘standard recipes of interpreting the social

world’

Negotiating cultural differences

Norway UK

Simmel’s version- And with theories from Gullestad: e.g. ‘invisible fences’ towards foreigners (friendly surface)

-outsider-position central; example.:

Lena, 32, Switzerland:‘..after two months they [employees) asked me where I actually came from …I said «Switzerland» «Ahh Switzerland, interesting» «And how are you here?» «I’m fine» «Ahh, okay yeah». And that was it. No interaction. Nothing. …

Schutz’s version-the foreigner meeting ‘the cultural pattern’; confrontation and negotiation (not about ‘pattern’ but ‘patterns’)

-oppose inhuman values and build on the ‘good’: examples:

Isaac, 37, Uganda:‘Polygami used to be allowed .. But you know, for us who have grown up now, we don’t do that … for them [parents] it’s a normal thing …‘In Africa we are close to family whereas here you are alone … that’s very stressful’

Dislocation versus translocation

The need for a stronger agent-perspective on the research about care and migration

Migration- and welfare policy contradictions – excluding non-EU citizens as work migrants

That care work not only includes those with long-lasting care orientations

That the context difference between N/UK as two different welfare states still makes sense in this social-care-sector-case◦ -more challenges for migrants in the UK (under

MW, more non-transparent care work in homes, less protected)

◦ -but also more ‘ways’ around the systems (voluntary work, care courses, network etc.)

Contribution to welfare discussions