Breaking out of the ‘prisoner of love’ dilemma: infrastructures of solidarity for...

Breaking out of the ‘prisoner of love’ dilemma: infrastructures of solidarity for live-in care workers in Switzerland

Abstract

Despite challenging conditions such as spatial atomization, social isolation and limited citizenship, migrant live-in care workers in different European countries have succeeded in organizing and making their voices heard. In this chapter, the author takes the situation of live-in care workers in Switzerland as a starting point to explore the conditions under which collective forms of claiming rights and self-organization become possible. Based on long-time participatory research with the grassroot union network Respekt@vpod (in Basel, Switzerland), the chapters identifies various im-/material aspects that are central to the production of relations of solidarity in the context of transnational live-in care work. These are a) spatial configurations and the creation of counter-spaces, b) political practices of solidarity work and alliance building, c) the formation of (often invisible) relations of solidarity and care practices in everyday life, and d) mental infrastructures, meaning, the sharing of knowledge and the production of collective awareness.

Keywords

• live-in care
• community unionism
• agency
• infrastructure of solidarity
• Switzerland

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. 278-291.