Dr Camilla Nordberg Senior lecturer in Social WorkSwedish School of Social ScienceUniversity of HelsinkiFinland

Globalised labour markets involving a growing proportion of the population

An increasing trans-national migration of care workers

Scholarly debate about new global hierarchies and inequalities with a gendered component

“Migration has become a private solution to a public problem for both men and women” (Castles & Miller, 2000)

Care chains - series of personal links between people across the globe based on the paid or unpaid work of caring and a globalised domesticity (Arlie Hochschild 2000)

Focus on emotions and “love migration” – wealthy countries extract love, time and energy from poor ones – taking caregivers away from the “South” and transferring them to the “North” Estimated that up to 30 per cent of the Filipino children live

in households with at least one parent working abroad (UNICEF 2008)

Analytically explored particularly in relation to migrant domestic care workers, but lately also the analysis of professional nurse migration and their role in the global economy – new lines of exclusion and inclusion (Nicola Yeates 2009; see also Eleonore Kofman 2004 and John Connell 2008)

Whereas globalisation of the workforce implies trans-national movements of people, money and ideologies, we would like to emphasise the localities in which processes of globalisation materialise

The case of Finland with a particular focus on metropolitan Helsinki – ethnographic work and public discourse/media research

Focus not only on migrants and society but on organisations, what actually happens at the workplace

Working life inequality no new phenomena but with increasing migration, new kinds of inequalities…

Migrants face a particular form of vulnerability related to their position as migrants: their weak negotiating position implies a conditional inclusion in the work force (Wrede & Nordberg 2010).

Until recently the migrant care worker issue has not been topical in Northern Europe Nordic ”social service states” with significant public

sector responsibility for universal social care provision (Anttonen & Sipilä)

The regulated organisation of care work has prevented the care work force from an influx of uneducated, irregular, low paid workers - also in a time of marketisation of services

Care labour market needs met by the “supply” of domestic and/or neighbouring country workers

Now the situation is drastically changing: an aging population and NPM demands for a more efficient and flexible organisation of the elder care sector

An increasing recruitment of migrant elder care workers The role of domestic undeclared work is still small-scale

An increasing lack of practical and auxiliary workers, particularly in the elder care sector

Decreasingly popular among the Finnish-born ‘Practical nursing’ implies short training and a

combination of health and social care work with children, elderly, disabled etc. Historically more specialised. Currently some distrust in the competence of these nurses

Predominantly employed by public service providers due to the logics of the social service state

The recruitment of these groups has earlier been among unemployed and recently arrived migrants, such as refugees

An escalation of the recruitment of Filipino nurses. In early 2010, 1714 migrants from the Phillipines lived in Finland: 1260 women and 454 men.

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Employment statistics, 2007(Non-Finnish/Swedish/Sámi-speaking)

Consultants/Senior Medical Officers etc. 2.7 % (188)

Other physicians 6.7 % (1219) Charge/Senior nurses 0.20 % (14) Nurses/Midwives 1.13 % (655) Practical nurses (incl. home helpers) 2.00 %

(1299) Auxiliary workers 3.31 % (550)

Immigrant care workers a new ordering hierarchy intersecting with gender and class?

Has not been considered as major problems - an estimation of some thousands of undocumented third country nationals

Considered to be increasing The Finnish Working Group on Human

Trade has estimated that up to half of the undocumented immigration is through organised trafficking (Saarto 2007)

It is estimated that the grey market amounts to 4.5% of GDP. The majority of this work does not involve foreign workers

Migration issues received media attention for the first time in the 1990s when migrants = refugees

Migrants constructed as being outside the workforce and the idea of migrants as participating activly in nation-building has not been very salient

During the last decade a change of direction:Demographic change has brought about new perspectives where migration is linked to national economics (e.g. Simola 2008)

The media has the power to reproduce or challenge global inequalities and ethnic hierarchies in relation to care work

A key objective to shed light on the ways in which some migrant care worker subjectivities are rendered possible while others are constrained.

Some quotes from the largest national newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, which is the dominant newspaper of metropolitan Helsinki

189 articles from 1995 to 2010 The larger project is including trade union journals

and web-based fora

Two examples of frames

Migrant elder care workers as imported economic goods

Migrant elder care workers as exotic and distant

Migrant care workers are here to save the welfare state:

During the upcoming 20 years, the metropolitan area needs 440 000 foreigners and the whole country needs more than 2.1 Million workers from outside state borders, if we want to sustain the ratio of people in working age to that of pensioners .

To Opteam this is business , but Eskola speaks in a grand manner about ”saving Finland” . During the next ten years more than 700 000 Finns will retire. According to Eskola, the promoting of labour migration is the only way to keep this country going.

At the same time the patients suffereing from dementia in ward numer ten are waiting for their turn. They need to be helped out of bed in the morning, be washed, dressed, fed and changed dypers on. Here work is the same hard routine all day. For a small salary. Estonian Liivi Võsu is one of ten thousands of foreigners who keep the Finnish society rolling. She covers for the shortage of labour.

Low-paid and degraded work accepted as common-sense:

Everyone has at least a nursing degree and working experience. Many have already been working abroad. In Finland the care-givers start off on a six month apprenticeship contract. During this time they are expected to learn Finnish too. After passing a practical examination they will be approved as practical nurses.

I have previously worked as a nurse in the hospital in Saudi-Arabia. We were responsible for the distribution of medicines and took our instructions from physisians. Here we change dypers and prepare food.

Culturally... In the Philippines, the second official language is

English, Filipinos respect old people and this service culture is already in their genes

”She is kind", the finger pointing towards Alielmi. The women are hugging: it is easy to understand why Åberg always wants Alielmi to be her bather. ”Where is Faduu”, one of the Finnish nurses asks. The nurses call Alielmi Faduumo by her first name, the elderly by her patronymic Ali, since it is so easy to remember. ”Where is Africa’s Ali", Åberg and Söderholm use to ask.

Spatially... What kind of a work place does she dream about?

”Dream, it is a beautiful word", Svianni thinks. Maybe the work place would be in Kauniainen, where there is nature, threes and rabbits...

Before it started snowing, I was thinking, what is it like? Is it wery cold? But no! It is only cold when there is a storm. When we arrived here last April, we put on our winter clothes, caps and everything, even though it was spring and 17 degrees warm. In the Philippines it is usually 30-35 degrees.

Economically... I want to go to Finland, so that I can take care of

my sick aunt. She need hospital care and my salary here does not cover the costs, nurse Circe Brillantes explaines from her home terrasse under the coconut trees.

Here in Finland I am paid perhaps ten times more than in the Philllipines . I can give my children what they want.

Spatial distance related to transnationalism...

The two frames work together to provide fixed positions : in the work hierarchy in their personal lives as exclusively transnational

rather than also national members Constraining migrant care worker

subjectivities as professionals and new nationals

Migrant care workers risk not getting a voice to change, resist and take up agency in relation to a broader range of subjectivities...

My little baby girl is now in the Philippines, she is a bit over one year old. Is is hard to be separated, especially during Christmas. I could have brought the baby here, but there is this problem. In case you want a family reunification in Finland you need an apartment. And us Filipino workers share apartments – our apartment is perhaps 60 square meters, it has three rooms and there are three of us there. It is difficult to find an apartment of ones own in Helsinki and it is too expensive. And a small child needs to be looked after all the time. She is my first child. My husband who is a sailor is now taking care of the baby in the Philippines. He would also like to come here. A while ago the baby had to go to the hospital when she caught the pnemonia. She was then staying with my mother. The lips of the baby turned all blue. Now my mother is too scared to look after the baby. Every day I communicate with my family via e-mail or Skype. For breakfast I have some bread. Normally in the Philippines we have fried egg, meat, fish – a full meal. And here I drink a lot of coffee. I used to have only one or two coffees a day, but here a lot. I have gained weight in Finland.