Migration and Networks of Care in Europe

Funded by the European Social Fund

Project team: Linda Connolly (Project Coordinator), Siobhan Mullally, Caitríona Ní Laoire

International partners: Helma Lutz (Goethe University of Frankfurt), Sarah Van Walsum (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Fiona Williams (University of Leeds)

Duration: 2006-2009

The central aims of this project were to: document and evaluate the impact that female migrant carers/domestic workers in private households are making to the household economy, the child care sector and to the care of older, frail and disabled people in Europe; identify why caring and domestic work in private households remains one of the most undocumented, unregulated and invisible forms of paid work in the European economy; develop strategies to regularise this employment, using relevant means of action, such as regulatory measures, incentives and tax and benefit reform; highlight the range of violations of rights of domestic migrant workers that occur in Europe, such as absence of written contracts, no pay when employer goes on holiday and no social benefits; identify and address the specific obstacles to social integration experienced by migrant women employed in care/domestic work and make policy recommendations and provide comparative and theoretical analysis of the ways in which migration regimes, care policy regimes and care cultures interlock in the countries under study.