Gender, Migration, and the Work of Care

Centre for Global Social Policy

Care is a basic human activity and need, but how societies talk about care shapes how those needs are defined and met.  Who is expected or permitted to provide it?  How are care and its providers valued? 

In this project, we compare and contrast how people and policymakers in North America and the Asia-Pacific are addressing care as a crisis that calls for both policy and personal solutions.   

Canada, the US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore all propose and arrange different solutions to their caregiving shortages.  We also examine the politics of care in countries that are sending migrant caregivers: the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

How does the global migration of people performing care work intersect with migration policies, care policies and the different ways that work and employment in care industries is structured?   How do policies in wealthier counties that are receiving workers impact the politics of care where workers in poorer countries leave to work abroad?   

This team will: 1) collect and analyze a wide range of comparative socio-economic, political, and demographic data, including data on formal care available through public and private sectors, and informal caregiving by friends; and 2) compare and evaluate different government policies on care related migrations and what that means for individuals and families. In the case of Asia, we will also examine data pertaining to the increasing use of foreign brides as quasi-family caregivers. 

Findings will be synthesized to develop a new framework for analyzing and mapping the varied landscapes of care, and how these are shaped by migration and employment programs and policies, as well as by particularities and commonalities of history and discourse.