Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Some terms and definitions
- Introduction: Race, racism and social work
- one Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age
- two The growth of xeno-racism and Islamophobia in Britain
- three The catalysers: ‘black’ professionals and the anti-racist movement
- four “Same, same, but different”
- five Antisemitism and anti-racist social work
- six Anti-Roma racism in Europe: past and recent perspectives
- seven In defence of multiculturalism?
- eight Social work and Islamophobia: identity formation among second and third generation Muslim women in north-west England
- nine Institutionalised Islamophobia and the ‘Prevent’ agenda: ‘winning hearts and minds’ or welfare as surveillance and control?
- ten ‘Street-grooming’, sexual abuse and Islamophobia: an anatomy of the Rochdale abuse scandal
- eleven My people?
- twelve Twenty-first century eugenics? A case study about the Merton Test
- thirteen The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration
- Conclusion: Race, racism and social work today: some concluding thoughts
- Bibliography
- Index
thirteen - The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Some terms and definitions
- Introduction: Race, racism and social work
- one Rethinking anti-racist social work in a neoliberal age
- two The growth of xeno-racism and Islamophobia in Britain
- three The catalysers: ‘black’ professionals and the anti-racist movement
- four “Same, same, but different”
- five Antisemitism and anti-racist social work
- six Anti-Roma racism in Europe: past and recent perspectives
- seven In defence of multiculturalism?
- eight Social work and Islamophobia: identity formation among second and third generation Muslim women in north-west England
- nine Institutionalised Islamophobia and the ‘Prevent’ agenda: ‘winning hearts and minds’ or welfare as surveillance and control?
- ten ‘Street-grooming’, sexual abuse and Islamophobia: an anatomy of the Rochdale abuse scandal
- eleven My people?
- twelve Twenty-first century eugenics? A case study about the Merton Test
- thirteen The role of immigration policies in the exploitation of migrant care workers: an ethnographic exploration
- Conclusion: Race, racism and social work today: some concluding thoughts
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter presents the findings of Greener's research into the migrant workers’ experiences of the adult social care sector. With increasing privatisation of care in the UK, social workers working with adults will have increasing, at least formal, contact with a range of care providers and organisations. Greener's study shows that the migrant work force is often ‘over skilled’ for the tasks they perform. However, as a result of state legislation and a range of economic and political barriers, the workers find themselves over-worked, under-paid and often stuck in a system with no obvious escape routes. Migrant labour and racism within the social care sector creates ‘institutionalised uncertainty’ and Greener's chapter highlights the human costs of the UK's immigration policies on the migrant workforce.
Introduction
Demographic and social transformation in the United Kingdom (UK) in the last decade has lead to what many have described as a ‘care crisis’ (Age UK 2012; MacDonald and Cooper 2007). The decline of the nuclear family and the associated traditional gender roles and women's increased participation in the labour market (albeit often in the low-paying sectors) are often blamed (Yeates 2009). As well as the shift of caring from the private sphere of the family to care facilities and formal services, the UK has also experienced a growing demand for care services through a generally ageing population. The increasing demand for paid care workers coupled with the care work's status as dirty, feminised and low paying (Bubeck 2002; Hartmann 1979; Twigg 2000) has led to immigration increasingly being used to fulfil labour shortages (McGregor 2007; Moriarty 2010).
This chapter focuses on the experience of migrant care workers working in an elderly residential care home in the UK. The focus is on the how the state, through various immigration policies, is crucial in influencing the conditions of their employment and generally their life opportunities (Anderson 2010; Kemp 2004; Piore 1983), rather than focusing on the discrimination and racism experienced from colleagues and service users in the course of their employment (Aronson and Neysmith 1996; Gunaratnum and Lewis 2010; Neysmith and Aronson 1997). It contributes to wider debates regarding the role of the state in determining rights for migrant workers and theoretically understands the state as an institutional structure imperative in the continuation of racism (Hayter 2004; Miles 1982; Shelley 2007).
- Type
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- Race, Racism and Social WorkContemporary Issues and Debates, pp. 243 - 256Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2013