VITAL YET VULNERABLE: EUROPE’S INTRA-EU MIGRANT CAREGIVERS

Late modern societies face a chronic care shortage. Their populations are ageing, and the traditional assumption that families (and predominantly their female members) represent an unlimited, endlessly flexible reservoir of care has been challenged. There is an indisputable social need for institutions to care for elderly people and for hired domestic care workers. Within the EU, internal migrants (predominantly female migrants) provide much of the workforce to meet these needs, yet current care policies put them in a highly vulnerable labour position.