Abstract
This chapter departs from the assertion that research on migrant care workers notably sidesteps a more systematic analysis of the importance of economic considerations, typically important in labor migration study. From this perspective, the notion of migration of care workers to Austria as a result of Austrian cash-for-care payments (Pflegegeld), legalization, and immigration policies is challenged. We demonstrate that the 2009 crisis-related unemployment increase is a better explanation for the observed growth in the number of carers from Slovakia than the Austrian legalization policies that occurred at the same time. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that the regional unemployment situation in Slovakia is also a good predictor of the income of carers in Austria. This underscores the importance of the economic rationales.
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Notes
- 1.
These higher numbers compared to the administrative Austrian figures presented in Chap. 2 are most likely due to the ability of the LFS to identify also informal carers or short-term carers who are not obliged to pay social security contributions.
- 2.
According to the 2011 census, the Bratislava and Trnava regions represent 21% of the population of Slovakia.
- 3.
This is based on recoded answers to an open-ended question about the immediate reason for starting care work in Austria in the cAreworkers 2011 survey.
- 4.
We use ISEI as introduced by Ganzeboom et al. (1992). For the conversion of ISCO-88 codes into ISEI, a script prepared by Harry Ganzeboom was used. The script is available at: http://www.harryganzeboom.nl/isco88/index.htm
- 5.
It should be noted that the findings of Elrick and Lewandowska (2008) show that the migrant networks among Polish care workers in Germany function differently than expected.
- 6.
Slovakia is a country with large regional unemployment differences. According to data from the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, at the time of our first survey, in November 2011, the unemployment at district level ranged from 34.3% in Rimavská Sobota in Southeastern Slovakia to 3.5% in the first district of the capital city. Five years later, at the time of the second survey, unemployment ranged from 24.8% in the Rimavská Sobota district to 3.3% in Piešt’any in Western Slovakia.
- 7.
The following options were mentioned in the questionnaire: (a) physical (functional limitation of skeletal and muscular system), (b) sensual (functional limitations of sensory organs, eyes…), (c) mental (functional limitation of mental abilities), (d) psychic disorder (disruption of social competence), (e) functional disorders of internal organs (chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular system, endocrine or neurological diseases, …).
- 8.
The following options were mentioned in the questionnaire: (a) social and medical care of the client, (b) nutrition (shopping and cooking), (c) small daily cleaning of the household of the client, (d) regular larger cleaning (cleaning windows, more complex tiding up of the household), (e) care for pets, (f) care for garden, homestead.
- 9.
One possible reason for this counter-intuitive result will be presented later, when discussing command over the German language.
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Bahna, M., Sekulová, M. (2019). Care Workers as Economic Migrants. In: Crossborder Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97028-8_3
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