1. The European Care Wall.Understanding Migrant Workersand European Integration from aGender PerspectiveStockholm, June 2012Helma Lutz

2. Effective and responsible integration ofimmigrants in the labor market and insociety is one of the key factors for successin reaching the Lisbon targets. The genderperspective is to a large extent lacking inintegration policies, which hampers thepossibilities of fully utilize the potential ofimmigrant women in the labor market.European Commissions Report on the Equality betweenMen and women. 2005 3. Overview- Domestic and Care as Work- Types of Migrant Care Work (domesticwork, childcare and elderly care)- The European Care-Curtain a geo-political aspect of the Global Care-Chain- Welfare and Migration Regimes- The ILO convention Decent Work forDomestic Workers- Debate 4. Care as WorkDomestic and Care Activities = Reproduction/Consumption productive WORKModernity labeled care/domestic work asunproductiveBinary: care/domestic workpaidemploymentAdam Smith and Karl Marx shared a contempt formenial servants and despised their toil asparasitical, actually a perversion of labor, asthough nothing were worthy of this name which didnot enrich the world (Hannah Arendt 1958:86). 5. Care as Work4 characteristics of current debates:b)Asymmetric evaluation of care and remunerated work isstill valid domestic/care work is considered unqualifiedwork low payment;c)Care/Domestic work outsourced to migrant women fromeconomically poorer countries rise of a global market forlow paid migrant care workers;d)Equal distribution of domestic/care work in the privatehousehold between the genders unsolved;e)Extrication of domestic and care work from the privatesphere as one of most insuperable challenges of 21stcentury. 6. Specificities of the domestic and care work sectorDistinction from other markets:- Intimate character of the work sphere;- Social construction of d.m. as female genderedarea;- Highly emotional relationship between employerand employee;- Highly personalized mutual dependency;- Logic of care work logic of other employment;- Cannot be reduced to replacement andsubstitution. 7. CareParadox:Western & Southern European countries have huge demand for migrant care workers while politically denying and ignoring this deficit.Mismatch of demand and restrictive migration policies resulting in large sector of undeclared work.Consequence: Legal care services and irregular migrant care work exist side by side. 8. Scale and numbers Exact data missing; informed guesses:Three mill. migrant women from Centraland Eastern Europe work in Southern andWestern Europe. Sector undergoes quick changes withinshort time periods; Unwillingness of sending and receivingcountries to acknowledge care migration: In receiving countries: hidden (dirty)secret; in sending countries: femalemigrants are characterized as temporarily 9. Types of Care workDomestic work (live-out) cleaning, ironing, cooking etc.~ est. 10% - 20% of all households purchase; irregularwork-service check systems are existent low level oftake up.Child care - au pairs (live-ins); despite au-pair regulation(contract for one year) many overstays (irregularity);Elderly long term care (live-ins)- 24 hours personal care worker- From self-organized (6-10 weeks) to regularized rotationsystem;- Majority from Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania, CzechRepublic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine,Georgia, Moldavia, Bulgaria). 10. Global Care Chains:Global Care Chains by A. Hochschild:Care gain and Care drainThree views on Global Care Chains:Critical feminist positionCelebrating globalization: win-win situation of migrants andemployersTraditionalist attitudeThe Care Curtain of EuropeCare chains are embedded in geo-political and historicalformations; they have non-identical outcomes: transnationalcare arrangements are at stake. 11. state migrant workers in the familyfamilymarket 12. ILO Convention June 2011 13. DEBATE- Cash for Care: Care receivers = employers(intimate and precarious relationship).- Various European countries: tacit toleration ofirregularity (open secret, state semi-compliancewith irregularity as a tool for flexibly solving the caredeficit).- Various European countries: Two sector model -side by side: expensive regular care services nextto (regularized) cheap migrant care worker Downgrading of social standards and labor rights.Care-drain in sending countries.- Will the ILO convention be implemented in nationallaw? Who are the actors to push this? 14. A (not so) hidden affair- Non recruitment policy for the low wageddomestic work sector;- Exceptions: au pair and care work for the elderlythrough ZAV;- Since May 2004: migrants from Eastern Europeuse free movement of services (Guide line96/71/EC);- Result:a) distinction between legal and illegalemployment is blurred;b) non discrimination of employers and nondecision (laissez faire) policy.