Irregular Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Who Cares?

摘要

Over the past 20 years, a number of interconnected social transformations have led domestic and care tasks to be outsourced to the market sector: namely, the increase in women's employment, the ageing of the population and the prevalence of neo-liberal models in economic and social policy. Alongside these transformations, migration both from East to Western Europe and to Europe from the global South has been a significant feature of contemporary societies. Irregular migrant domestic workers find themselves at the centre of this nexus of social changes. As the editor of this volume notes: 'It is only through the provision of a plentiful and affordable migrant labour force that welfare and care regimes in Europe become affordable' (p. 6).