The Au Pair Scheme as ‘Cultural Exchange’: Effects of Norwegian Au Pair Policy on Gender Equality and Citizenship

‘My home is my castle’. The Norwegian home in times of paid migrant domestic labour

“…In addition to managing unpaid domestic labour in their own dwelling, women have traditionally filled domestic jobs of cleaning, caring and cooking -jobs that are typically poorly regulated and poorly paid (Gregson and Lowe 1994). As more women entered the labour force in the 20th century, leaving both men and the public sector with increased responsibility for domestic tasks, the gender difference in these roles to some extent became less distinct (Gullikstad et al 2016;Tronto 2002;Watts 2007). At the same time, women's increased participation in the labour market has produced a care deficit that neither men nor the public sector have been able or willing to fill, paving the way for the 'feminisation of migration' and 'global care chains' (Gullikstad et al 2016;Hochschild 2001;Isaksen 2010;Lutz 2008Lutz , 2011Triandafyllidou and Marchetti 2015).…”

“…As more women entered the labour force in the 20th century, leaving both men and the public sector with increased responsibility for domestic tasks, the gender difference in these roles to some extent became less distinct (Gullikstad et al 2016;Tronto 2002;Watts 2007). At the same time, women's increased participation in the labour market has produced a care deficit that neither men nor the public sector have been able or willing to fill, paving the way for the 'feminisation of migration' and 'global care chains' (Gullikstad et al 2016;Hochschild 2001;Isaksen 2010;Lutz 2008Lutz , 2011Triandafyllidou and Marchetti 2015). While the feminisation of migration (describing the higher percentage of voluntary migrants who are women) has been proposed as a 'gendered pattern' in international migration (Lutz 2008), the concept of the global care chain covers 'a series of personal links between people across the globe based on paid and unpaid work of caring' (Hochschild 2001, 131).…”

“…Although the practice of paying a person to perform housework and care work within the private home is not new, its scope and global character have escalated in recent years (Cox 2006(Cox , 2015Gullikstad et al 2016;Hochschild 2001;Isaksen 2010;Lutz 2008Lutz , 2011Triandafyllidou and Marchetti 2015).…”

“…However, as most domestic labourers are women, the gendered aspect of the domestic home is maintained. At the same time, one can say that the gendering has been given a new meaning, as the women who have replaced the female homemaker are no longer (only or necessarily) of a different class, but often also of a different nationality and/or ethnicity and colour (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002;Gullikstad et al 2016;Hochschild 2001;Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001;Parreñas 2008).…”

Reproducing the national family: kinship claims, development discourse and migrant caregivers in Palestine/Israel

“…In focusing on the narratives of Jewish-Israelis, I follow scholars who argue that understanding the 'demand side' of migration and carework is crucial to exposing the formation of gendered hierarchies and ideologies inhering within specific national contexts (see, for example: Staab and Maher, 2006;Porat and Iecovich, 2010;Ambrosini, 2015;Marchetti, 2015;Gullikstad and Annfelt, 2016;Kristensen, 2016;Marchetti, 2016). Following Borris and Parren˜as (2010), I conceptualise migrant carework as a form of 'intimate labour' -a continuum of 'bodily and psychic' (2010: 2) activities, affective exchanges and power relations that are inextricable from transnational capital formations.…”