Crossborder Care: Lessons from Central Europe

Description

This book analyses the circular migration of care workers in Central Europe using the example of Slovak carers in 24-hour care provision for the elderly in Austria. Challenging analyses that focus primarily on care drain and care regimes, Bahna and Sekulová supplement quantitative methodology with qualitative fieldwork to demonstrate the importance of the sending country’s economic context. The authors discuss the dynamics of economic differences between Austria and its post-communist neighbors as preconditions of the crossborder care provision, bridging analyses of policy and legal frameworks with approaches from labor migration study. Even as they scrutinize the relevance of care drain-based analyses, Bahna and Sekulová bring to the fore the interplay of economic differences, social policies, gender and migration regimes with geographic proximity to study long-term impacts of care work, including an analysis of employment after care work. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 1-10 Slovak Care Workers in Austria: An Overview (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 11-39 Care Workers as Economic Migrants (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 41-64 Does the Family Suffer? (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 65-88 Crossborder Care in the Long Term: Intersections of Age, Gender, and Circularity (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 89-118 Leaving Care Work: Career Prospects in a Secondary Labor Market (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 119-133 Conclusion: Labor Migration After All? (Miloslav Bahna, Martina Sekulová)....Pages 135-146 Back Matter ....Pages 147-149