Abstract
This article examines the relationship between globalization, care and migration, with specific reference to the ‘global care chain’ concept. The utility of this concept is explored in the light of its current and potential contributions to research on the international division of reproductive labour and transnational care economies. The article asserts the validity of global care chain analysis but argues that its present application to migrant domestic care workers must be broadened in order that its potential may be fully realized. Accordingly, five ways in which the concept could be more broadly applied are outlined and applications of this expanded framework are illustrated through a case study of nurse migration in the Irish context. Finally, the discussion considers future directions for empirical and theoretical research into global care chains and suggests various lines of enquiry.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The global care chain alludes to the transnational processes of production and consumption signified by the global commodity chain concept (Hopkins and Wallerstein 1986; Gereffi and Korzeniewicz, 1994) – except that the commodity being traded in this case is care. Unfortunately, Hochschild (2000) did not elaborate further on the implications of drawing from global commodity chain analysis for the purpose of analysing the internationalization of care service provision, nor has she done so since (see Ehrenreich and Hochschild, 2002). See Yeates (2004) for a discussion of the issues arising from this derivation.
Ireland here is used to refer to the 32 counties when discussing the pre-1921 period, and to the 26 counties that are today known as the Republic of Ireland when speaking of the post-1921 period.
O'Malley (1992: 33) notes that in 1951 just 6 per cent of Irish ‘dollar income’ came from exports, the bulk of the remainder coming equally from tourism and emigrant remittances, while in 1961 emigrants remittances were worth £13.5 million virtually equalling the public costs of primary and secondary education combined (Dunne, 2003: 4, 236).
Married women were not expected to work; indeed they were prohibited from entering or remaining in certain occupations upon marriage from 1929 until 1973 when the marriage bar was finally lifted for all public sector workers.
Legislative changes in the US in 1921 and 1924 assigned numerical quotas for each national grouping. From the 1930s prospective immigrants also had to demonstrate they had substantial capital and nominate an American citizen to guarantee to indemnify the state against the individual becoming a public charge (Delaney, 2002: 7).
This is likely to under-estimate the total number of nurses emigrating since figures exclude nurses who emigrated to countries (notably in the Middle East) without statutory nursing registration authorities.
Verification of qualification statistics constitute a measure of the outflow of nurses and their destinations. While these statistics constitute one of the best statistical sources currently available, they should be treated with caution for four main reasons. First, they refer to the number of requests for verifications of qualifications, not the number of nurses who requested verification. Second, some countries do not have verification requirements. Third, some of this outflow will be overseas nurses who have registered for a period with the national nursing regulatory body and who are applying to return home. Fourth, the issuance of verification details to a regulatory body or employer abroad does not necessarily mean that the nurse necessarily then moves to, or works in that country (Buchan, 2002: 23).
References
Buchan, J. (2002) ‘International recruitment of nurses: United Kingdom Case Study’ Report for the World Health organization, the International Council of Nurses and the Royal College of Nursing.
Buchan, J., Parkin, T. and Sochalski, J. (2003) ‘International Nurse Mobility: Trends and Policy Implications’. Online, available www.rcn.org.uk/downloads/InternationalNurseMobility [Accessed 16 April 2003].
Chang, K.A. and Ling, L.H.M. (2000) ‘Globalization and its intimate other: Filipina Domestic Workers in Hong Kong’: in M.H. Marchand and A.S. Ryan (2000) editors, Gender and Global Restructuring: Sightings, Sites and Resistances, London: Routledge.
Chin, C.B.N. (1998) In Service and Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers And The Malaysian ‘Modernity’ Project, New York: Columbia University Press.
Clear, C. (2000) Women of the House: Women's Household Work in Ireland 1926–1961 Discourses, Experiences, Memories, Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
Conroy, P. and Brennan, A. (2003) Migrant Workers and their Experiences, Dublin: Equality Authority/IBEC/Congress/Construction Industry Federation.
Conroy Jackson, P. (1993) ‘Managing the Mothers: the case of Ireland’ J. Lewis (2000) editor, Women and Social Policies in Europe: Work, Family and the State, Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
Daniels, M. (1993) Exile or Opportunity? Irish Nurses and Midwives in Britain, Occasional Papers in Irish Studies No. 5, Liverpool: The Institute of Irish Studies, The University of Liverpool.
Delaney, E. (2002) Irish Emigration Since 1921, Dublin: The Economic and Social History Society of Ireland.
Diner, H.R. (1984) Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century, London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dunne, C. (2003) An Unconsidered People: the Irish in London, Dublin: New Island Press.
Ehrenreich, B. and Hochschild, A. (2002) Editors, Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York: Metropolitan Books.
Fitzgerald, K. (2000) Job Scene, Dublin (www.jobscene.ie).
Fitzpatrick, D. (1990) Irish Emigration 1801–1921 Dublin: The Economic and Social History Society of Ireland.
Gereffi, G. and Korzeniewicz, M. (1994) Editors, Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Health Service Employers Agency (2002) National Survey on Nursing Resources, November 2002. Dublin.
Hennessy, M. (2003) ‘Nurses' spouses may get permits to work’ Irish Times, 13 December 2003: 8.
Hochschild, A.R. (2000) ‘Global care chains and emotional surplus value’ in W. Hutton and A. Giddens (2000) editors, On The Edge: Living with Global Capitalism, London: Jonathan Cape.
Hopkins, T. and Wallerstein, I. (1986) ‘Commodity chains in the world economy prior to 1800’ Review, Vol. 10, No. 1: 157–170.
Huang, S. and Yeoh, B. (1996) ‘Ties that bind: state policy and migrant female domestic helpers in Singapore’ Geoforum, Vol. 27, No. 4: 479–493.
Jackson, P. (1984) ‘Women in 19th Century Irish Emigration’ International Migration Review, Vol. 18, No. 4: 1004–1020.
Katzman, D.M. (1978) Seven Days A Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrialising America, New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelly, K. and NicGiolle Choille, T. (1990) Emigration Matters for Women, Dublin: Attic Press.
Lutz, H. (2002) ‘At your service madam! The globalization of domestic service’ Feminist Review, Vol. 70: 89–103.
MacLaughlin, J. (1997) ‘Emigration and the construction of nationalist hegemony in Ireland: the historical background to ‘new wave’ Irish emigration’ in J. MacLaughlin (1997) editor, Location and Dislocation in Contemporary Irish Society, Cork: Cork University Press.
MacLaughlin, J. (1994) Ireland: the Emigrant Nursery and the World Economy, Cork: Cork University Press.
McDonagh, M. (2003) ‘Filipino nurses may be lured away by better pay’ Irish Independent, 3 June 2003: 4.
Nowlan, D. (1986) ‘Nearly half of all nursing graduates emigrating’ Irish Times, 7 May 1986.
O'Connor, H. and Goodwin, J. (n.d.) ‘Locating Irish Workers in the British Labour Force Survey’ Centre for Labour Market Studies Working Paper no. 5, University of Leicester: Centre for Labour Market Studies.
O'Hearn, D. (2001) The Atlantic economy: Britain, the US and Ireland, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
O'Malley, E. (1992) ‘Problems of Industrialisation in Ireland’ in J.H. Goldthorpe and C.T. Whelan (1992) editors, The Development of Industrial Society in Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Parreñas, R.S. (2000) ‘Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labour’ Gender and Society, Vol. 14, No. 4: 560–581.
Ryan, L. (1990) ‘Irish emigration to Britain since World War II’ in Kearney R. (1990) editor, Migrations: the Irish at Home and Abroad, Dublin: Wolfhound Press.
Scanlan, P. (1991) The Irish Nurse: a study of nursing in Ireland–history and education 1718–1981, Manor Hamilton, Leitrim: Drumlin Press.
Sexton, J.J. (2002) ‘Ireland, SOPEMI report for 2002’, Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute.
Timur, S. (2000) ‘Changing trends and major issues in international migration: an overview of UNESCO programmes’ International Migration, Vol. 165: 255–269.
Walter, B. (2001) Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place and Irish Women, Routledge: London.
Walter, B. (1989) Irish Women in London: the Ealing Dimension, Ealing Women's Unit: London.
Walter, B., Gray, B., Almeida Dowling, L. and Morgan, S. (2002) Irish Emigrants and Irish Communities Abroad: a Study of Existing Sources of Information. An Analysis for the Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants, Dublin.
Yeates, N. (2004) ‘Global care chains: critical reflections and lines of enquiry’ International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 6, No. 3.
Yeates, N. (1997) ‘Familism and Selectivism in Community Care for the Elderly: A Comparison of the Republic of Ireland and the UK’ in M. May, E. Brunsdon and G. Craig (1997) editors, Social Policy Review, London: Social Policy Association.
Yeates, P. (2001) ‘Number of foreign nurses steadily increasing’ Irish Times, 30 April 2001.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on a paper presented at the International Studies Association in Portland, Oregon in February 2003. The author acknowledges the financial support of the British Academy in facilitating travel to that conference. This work has gained considerably from the constructive comments from Eleonore Kofman, Tomás Mac Sheoin, Jan Aart Scholte, Ritu Vij and the two Feminist Review reviewers on an earlier version of this article.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yeates, N. A dialogue with ‘global care chain’ analysis: nurse migration in the Irish context. Fem Rev 77, 79–95 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400157
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400157