A life-course perspective of South American women's experiences as care workers in Switzerland

Abstract

2.1. Migration and care regime Based on jus sanguinis and federalism, the Swiss migration regime is classified as one of the most restrictive, regarding the admission, residence and naturalization of foreigners (Huddleston, Niessen, Ni Chaoimh, & White, 2011). The Agreement of Free Movement of Persons with the EU in 2002 and the new Federal Act on Foreign Nationals in 2008 have marked the Swiss migration regime's recent evolution. A hierarchy between EU and non-EU citizens has been established. For instance, non-EU foreigners' access to the Swiss labour market depends on proving that they possess higher and scarcer skills than Swiss citizens and EU foreigners. The stratification of foreigners 2 is part of a skills-based selectivity policy (Raghuram, 2008). The Federal Statistics Office (FSO) showed that 35% of migrants held a post-compulsory education degree, whereas 30% of the non-migrant population achieved the same level in 2014 (FSO, 2016). Indeed, a scarcity exists within the highly skilled