Publikationen der Stiftung → The dependency on East-to-West care labour migration in the EU
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  • The European Union member states are facing a growing crisis in the availability of care provision and care labour, resulting from demographic aging and neoliberal policymaking. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has also shown how fragile the European long-term care system is and how much Western European member states rely on the labour of women, especially migrant, ethnic-minority women or women from rural areas or lower social classes for its provision. While the care needs of the elderly population are increasing, states' expenditure on health and social care has largely been stagnating. Policymaking follows a cost-effective logic and instead of investing sufficiently in elderly care it promotes marketisation of the care sector. This discussion paper focuses on the situation and working conditions of intra-EU care migrants and summarises the most important structural problems that characterise the live-in care market and policymaking at the national level. In addition to better functioning EU-level regulation, adequate and sustainable financing of long-term care and quality care implemented by the state are essential in order to find a long-term solution to meeting the care needs of everyone in the EU. This paper lists up some possible directions for policy recommendations for the EU and its member states on how to improve the working conditions of live-in carers.