Crisis as Catalyst? Romanian Migrant Care Workers in Italian Home-Based Care Arrangements. The COVID-19 crisis in Italy has brought to public attention the labour of almost one million migrant care workers (MCWs) who care for older Italian persons in their homes. Over the past three decades, the migrant-in-the-family model has become one of the main pillars of eldercare provision in Italy. The increase of this kind of care is analysed with a mixed-method approach, using official statistics, secondary literature, and expert interviews. The analysis integrates dynamics in the countries of origin and destination and focuses on Romanian MCWs as a case in point. The analysis highlights crises as catalysts for complex consequences and dynamics of transnational care migration, which play out at the levels of state, family, and individuals.
Italy is one of the main receiving countries of migrant care workers in Europe. Its migrant-in-the-family model has developed since the 1990s, and, today, home-based eldercare is unimaginable without the work of the almost one million care workers employed in private households, of whom over 75% are migrants. Despite forming one of the most important pillars of eldercare provision in the country, the employment of migrant care workers is not addressed in national policy. However, regional policymaking is far from inactive in the face of growing gaps in care as regions and municipalities play a crucial role in regulating, organising, and providing eldercare. With a focus on comprehensive solutions, cross-sector collaborations, and interactive learning processes, social innovation becomes an important element in reforming eldercare in the context of institutional inertia, fragmentation, and permanent austerity. In what ways are regions using social innovation to respond to challenges in eldercare provision and integrate migrant care workers? This study is based on interviews with experts from the region of Tuscany, which is running the project Pronto Badante (emergency care worker). The results suggest several advantages of local interventions breaking with the institutional silo mentality, as well as ongoing challenges regarding the impact and sustainability of these interventions.
Die wachsende Bedeutung von häuslicher Altenpflege durch Migrant*innen wirft Fragen nach der Sicherstellung von „guter Arbeit“ im Privathaushalt auf. Denn der Arbeitsort Privathaushalt ist oft durch informelle Arbeitsverhältnisse und unzureichende Arbeitsbedingungen gekennzeichnet ; Eingriffe und Regulation durch staatliche oder kollektive Akteure sind in diesem Sektor meist begrenzt. Anders als in Deutschland gibt es in Italien jedoch umfassende Regulierungs- und Formalisierungsbestrebungen seitens der Tarifparteien und des Staates. Der Beitrag untersucht auf Basis von 22 inhaltsanalytisch ausgewerteten Expert*innen-Interviews die historischen Wurzeln und Formalisierungstendenzen des migrant-in-the-family model in Italien. Ungeachtet fortbestehender Handlungsbedarfe zeigt der Fall Italien Potenziale für die Ermöglichung von „guter Arbeit“ im Privathaushalt auf, die auch für Deutschland von Interesse sind.
Collective bargaining relating to domestic work is a rare occurrence and its contributions to regulation and formalization have not yet been addressed by the literature. Italy has one of the highest numbers of domestic workers in Europe and is one of the few countries with a national collective bargaining agreement. Trade unions and associations of family employers have been negotiating agreements since 1974. Based on expert interviews, the results of the present qualitative study suggest challenges and limitations to the collective bargaining process in domestic work in question, but also an ongoing formalization of nonstandard work in an occupation where employment is expanding and dominated by women migrant workers, due to collective bargaining and the commitment of the social partners.
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