Caring for those who care? The rights and the needs of migrant care and domestic workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Globally, care and domestic work falls primarily on women and girls. Comprising paid and unpaid activities, care is vital for life as we know it. While socioeconomic, demographic, sanitary and environmental factors heighten care demand, a new phenomenon has emerged during the last decades: increasingly, individuals migrate to provide care, giving rise to ‘global care chains’.

Global care chains connect people across the world through care work. Households and organisations have developed internationalisation strategies, reflected on the transnational migration and recruitment of care labour. Therefore, to fulfil care needs, an international division of care work has materialised in which individuals from lower-income countries migrate to richer regions to provide care, while transferring their own care needs to others.

The inconsistencies between migration, labour, social and care regimes undermine migrant care workers’ rights. Care migration also entails consequences in sending and receiving countries. These challenges have magnified amidst the COVID-19 crisis, which has risen care demand, amplified inequalities and restricted mobility. As women represent the lion’s share of migrant care work, there are vital implications for gender equality.

This lecture will analyse the socio-spatial dimensions of care, focusing on the essential role of migrant care workers. We will discuss the way in which global care chains mesh migration, class, gender, labour, and care at a transnational level, the effects of the pandemic on the situation of migrant care workers and the existing approaches to tackle challenges and seize opportunities to guaranteeing rights.