Intro — Senior home care for sale: agency-brokered transnational live-in care in Europe

Introduction — Senior home care for sale: agency-brokered transnational live-in care in Europe

Abstract

Senior home care provision in Europe has changed profoundly: the rise of brokering agencies has fostered a transnational marketization of live-in care services. The agencies promise affordable care at home that is tailored to the individual needs of seniors. At the same time, care workers contest the often-exploitative labour conditions prevalent in the field. The first part of this introduction discusses common trends in live-in care across Europe: the emergence of new care markets, the transnationalisation of labour, work and politics, the household as a workplace and care workers’ agency in labour disputes and care struggles. The second part of the introduction gives an overview of the chapters in the book. It maps the European landscape of agency-brokered senior home care and outlines significant trends in sending and receiving countries. The comparative, cross-national and country-studies provide in-depth insights into a new contested mode of care provision. They illustrate how live-in home care arrangements function and how they are being challenged and contested.

Keywords

• agency-brokered senior home care provision
• live-in care work
• marketization
• transnationality
• labour disputes and care struggles

In: Aulenbacher, Brigitte / Lutz, Helma / Palenga, Ewa / Schwiter, Karin (eds.) 2024: Home Care for Sale: The Transnational Brokering of Senior Care in Europe. London: Sage, pp. 1-19