Description du projet:
In the global North, the aging population involves an increase of needs in health care and daily living assistance. Governments in most of these countries draw on the expectation that women will ensure this care. At the same time, family transformations including the increasing female workforce participation challenge women’s availability for this demand. Increasingly, female migrant care workers from poorer societies have become a popular solution in this context (Aulenbacher et al., 2024; Coe, 2024; Horn et al., 2021; Schilliger, 2014). Their movement involves a chain of care, since by migrating abroad, they leave their older parents behind. These old adults may themselves need care from another migrant care worker who, herself, might leave older parents behind. These global care chains –– the international market of mostly female care workers who migrate from the global South to work in the care market in the global North (Hochschild, 2015) –– are growing. They take place at the jointure of global class, gender, and race/ethnicity inequalities, in which certain groups in richer countries can use their socioeconomic advantages to buy health and social care from cheaper workforce coming from poorer countries. It typically constitutes an affordable solution to States in the global North in the context of insufficient policies of adequate and affordable care. Unlike on childcare, this international division of labor on elderly care draws little attention from policymakers and social scientists. At the same time, the use of care workers from foreign countries to fill in elder care gaps in the global North poses ethical issues; among others, it does not respect World Health Organization principles, according to which each country should form enough health care workers for their own needs rather than using care resources from other –– poorer –– countries (Mavris, 2023). Our research project contributes to fill in this gap by investigating care relations and care management between female migrants active in the global elder care market, their parents, and other women providing care to these left behind older adults. Using oral history interviews, we will enlighten the experiences of these migrant care workers and their parents. We will follow care chains along two major global migration routes between Africa and Europe, and between Central and North America. Starting from Switzerland and the US and unfolding links in Mexico, Tunisia and Morocco, we will focus on these women’s motivations and strategies to engage in global care chains. We will also study the subsequent challenges and opportunities following their migration in terms of care management for them, their older parents, and other migrant care workers taking care of these older left-behind adults. This study addresses major global issues linked to the future of aging demographics, migrations trends, and healthcare policies. We will highlight the social impacts of global care chains for migrant care workers and their left behind older family members. It will provide a large and complex understanding of the interactions between care work and care needs for older people between countries in the global North and South. The findings will be useful for a large range of social groups, such as policy makers, global policies organizations, human rights advocacy organizations, social and health workers, scholars, and students in the field of migration, care and aging, and the population at large.
Research team within HES-SO:
Repetti Marion
, Mahfoudh Amel
, Pralong Mélody
, Ciobanu Oana
Partenaires académiques: Powell Katy, Virginia Tech; Rodriguez Cecily, Virginia Tech
Durée du projet:
01.07.2026
Montant global du projet: 936'395 CHF
Url of the project site:
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/10005947
State: Ongoing
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