Nicola Yeates, Globalizing Care Economies and Migrant Workers: Explorations in Global Care Chains

The migration of social workers to and from the United Kingdom: a comparative perspective

“…The idea of 'push and pull' factors asserts that the unequal structure of world markets explains the immigration of people from less powerful and poorer countries to more powerful and wealthier countries (Lee, 1966;Segal and Heck, 2012). Active recruitment from overseas and international exchange rates (Lyons, 2006 Lyons andLawrence, 2009;Welbourne, Harrison and Ford, 2007; increased the UK's 'pull' factors, and these were enhanced by the surplus of professionals in some developing countries acting as 'push' factors (Yeates, 2009;Hussein et al, 2011). The possibility of higher standards of living, financial and political stability, better working conditions, and more family and professional opportunities elsewhere played a role in driving migration of social workers and others (Engelbrecht, 2006;Hanna and Lyons., 2016).…”

‘Sometimes, men cannot do what women can’: Pacific labour mobility, gender norms and social reproduction

“…Along with Hochschild's (2001) framing of these transfers of reproductive labour as a 'global care chain' , and significant extensions to this analysis by Yeates (2008Yeates ( , 2012, this branch of scholarship made the implicit observation that temporary labour migration disrupts the total social organization of labour (Glucksmann, 1995)-that is the paid and unpaid forms of work that households perform and require. Adjacent to this literature is a smaller set of contributions that, emerging from the resurgent popularity of SRT in general (Bhattacharya, 2017), have sought to establish links between guestwork and the reorganization of socially reproductive labour within migrant households (Elias & Rai, 2019;Ferguson & Mcnally, 2015;Yeoh et al, 2023).…”

“…Parreñas's (2000) seminal work on Filipina domestic workers and the international division of reproductive labour paved the way for theorizing the displacement of unpaid care work within transnational households, as well as the distinctly gendered reallocation of paid and unpaid labour to address emergent ‘care deficits’ (Gagnon & Khoudour‐Castéras, 2011). Along with Hochschild's (2001) framing of these transfers of reproductive labour as a ‘global care chain’, and significant extensions to this analysis by Yeates (2008, 2012), this branch of scholarship made the implicit observation that temporary labour migration disrupts the total social organization of labour (Glucksmann, 1995)—that is the paid and unpaid forms of work that households perform and require. Adjacent to this literature is a smaller set of contributions that, emerging from the resurgent popularity of SRT in general (Bhattacharya, 2017), have sought to establish links between guestwork and the reorganization of socially reproductive labour within migrant households (Elias & Rai, 2019; Ferguson & Mcnally, 2015; Yeoh et al., 2023).…”

If caring begins at home, who cares for the carers? Introducing the Global Care Policy Index

“…One estimate is that unpaid carework activities – 80% of which is estimated to be household work—would amount to 9% of global GDP if remunerated at the minimum wage (ILO, 2018). And yet, carework provided in a private household (even when it is paid work) continues to be denigrated as low‐status, is often poorly paid, makes up a significant part of the informal sector, and is frequently outsourced to marginalised groups (women, working‐class individuals, newly arrived immigrants, lower‐caste individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, temporary migrant workers, etc., within a country (Folbre, 2006; Nakano Glenn, 1992; Yeates, 2009; Zimmerman et al, 2006). Scholars and activists have attempted to bring the plight of domestic‐care providers to the attention of policymakers but—although some progress has been made on ‘making care “count”’ (Duffy, 2011)—there continues to be insufficient recognition of this form of work and inadequate regulatory protections for both unpaid family caregivers and paid domestic workers, who are overwhelmingly women (Budlender, 2008; Rizavi & Sofer, 2010).…”