Care, Gender and Migration: Towards a Theory of Transnational Domestic Work Migration in Europe

Abstract

In this article the authors discuss their analytical concept, developed through and for the exploration of forms and dynamics of transnational labour and care arrangements in domestic work migration. Firstly, on the institutional level they highlight the interplay between three national regimes (of migration, gender and welfare/care) to clarify the specific dynamic of transnational care migration. Secondly, based on intersectionality analysis, the institutional level is linked to the meso and micro levels of networks/organizations and individuals, to explore how these institutional regimes act as an opportunity/obstruction structure – either as a source of assets or a cause of marginalization, or both. Thirdly, by adopting the dual transnational perspective of both the sending and the receiving society, transnational social spaces are shown as the migrants' action frame of reference. Finally, a cross-national comparative study of two cases of transnational East–West migration (from Ukraine to Poland and from Poland to Germany) can provide new insights into the relationship between transnational migration, gender and care regimes on the one hand, and the migrants' arrangements for labour and care on the other.