An increasingly older population also means the number of people in need of care is increasing. Germany's huge demand for nursing staff can long since only be met by migrant workers. Given the economic disparity, this system has been working well for years: care workers, especially women, from Eastern Europe come to Germany, where they earn more than in their home country. But how does the mobility of female Polish care workers, for example, affect the situation in Poland? This is what researchers are investigating as part of "Researching the Transnational Organization of Senior Care, Labour and Mobility in Central and Eastern Europe" - a project endowed with €1.5 million by the Volkswagen Foundation as part of its "Challenges and Potentials in Europe" program.
The research project titled "CareOrg", which also involves teams in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and the Netherlands, investigates transnational senior care work both from and within Central and Eastern Europe. The focus is on understanding and theorizing emerging transnational care markets and finding solutions for sustainable and decent care and care work in Europe. Engaged and empirical research will map and analyze the current and future patterns of commercialization, marketization, transnationalization, professionalization and digitalization of senior care.
Care workers are in the job for an average of eight years. Many are unable to endure the high psychological and physical stress with moderate recognition and low salaries for longer. Created as an illegal emergency solution to care for relatives, so-called live-ins have long since become established, legalized and formalized in Germany: There are agencies that place care workers with those requiring care. These care workers not only commute, they also rotate with colleagues from home country. The COVID-19 pandemic was a shock for this system: from one day to the next, this cross border mobility was no longer possible and the system threatened to collapse. This is no sustainable practice, says Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck, who heads the project, adding that precarious internal European migration cannot be the solution. After all, the populations in the care workers' home countries are also getting older and need care.
"In the care workers' countries of origin, family members remain the primary providers of care - work that is usually done by women, who retire earlier as a result, and pay correspondingly little into the pension scheme," Palenga-Möllenbeck explains, adding that the fact that governments and politicians in these countries are not facing up to the problem comes on the backs of these women. There is a kind of cascade, she says, pointing out that while many Polish women go to Germany to work as live-in carers, Ukrainian women come to Poland to provide care - and usually do so without having any proper contractual basis. "Many of them are really exploited and only earn as much as to be able to cover their living expenses," Palenga-Möllenbeck explains.
In addition to shining a light on the situation, her research also emphasizes the need for action. In Switzerland, for example, care workers arriving from abroad often receive training on their rights and obligations organized by trade unions. There is an urgent need for proper employment contracts throughout Europe, Palenga-Möllenbeck says, adding that this also applies to Germany, where many care workers are employed on the basis of less advantageous contracts under private law.
CareOrg is an international and interdisciplinary research team composed of scientists specialized in work, mobility and ageing studies. Dr. Palenga-Möllenbeck (Goethe University Frankfurt) serves in a dual role as both project head and project coordinator. The other participating institutions are Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), the Center for Social Sciences in Budapest (Hungary), Babeș-Bolyai-University in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), the Institute for Systemic Alternatives in Kyiv (Ukraine) and the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). Based on a cross-thematic and cross-country comparative research design, CareOrg uses a mix of methods, including comparative policy analysis and five country-specific and topic-oriented in-depth case studies on care drain, care situation as a result of war and flight in and from Ukraine, care mediated via agencies and digital platforms, qualifications and requirements for international caregivers and much more.
The project is part of Volkswagen Foundation's "Challenges and Potentials for Europe" program, in which Goethe University is involved with a total of five projects, making it the program's most involved university in Germany. Starting Wednesday, September 4, a three-day symposium will take place at Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover, in which 21 international research projects will participate and present their findings on many highly relevant social issues such as intergenerational relationships, ageing, migration, populism and COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck from Goethe University's Institute of Sociology is responsible for organizing the symposium.
