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COVID-19 and (Im)migrant Carers in Italy: The Production of Carer Precarity

Author

Listed:
  • Senyo Dotsey

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy)

  • Audrey Lumley-Sapanski

    (The Rights Lab, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK)

  • Maurizio Ambrosini

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

This article explores the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on foreign health workers in Italy. Focusing on caregivers in Lombardia, we explore what we call carer precarity, an emergent form of precarity resulting from pandemic restrictions exacerbating existing socio-legal vulnerabilities. The duality of the carer role—complete household and societal reliance in addition to simultaneous socio-legal marginalization—shapes their precarity. Utilizing data from 44 qualitative interviews with migrant care workers in live-in and daycare facilities that were conducted prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, we demonstrate how the migrant populations working in the care sector were particularly adversely affected due to their migratory status and working conditions. Migrants are excluded from or have differential access to a range of benefits or entitlements and are employed in undervalued work. Workers with live-in employment experienced tiered access to benefits plus the spatiality of restrictions, resulting in their near-complete confinement. Drawing on Gardner (2022) and Butler’s (2009) conceptualizations of precarity, we describe the emergence of a new form of pandemic-induced spatial precarity for migrant care workers at the nexus of gendered labor, limited mobility, and the spatiality of and a hierarchy of rights associated with migratory status. The findings have implications for healthcare policy and migration scholarship.

Suggested Citation

  • Senyo Dotsey & Audrey Lumley-Sapanski & Maurizio Ambrosini, 2023. "COVID-19 and (Im)migrant Carers in Italy: The Production of Carer Precarity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:12:p:6108-:d:1169292
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Senyo Dotsey, 2023. "Foreign Healthcare Workers and COVID-19 in Europe: The Paradox of Unemployed Skilled Labour," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, April.
    2. Kai Leichsenring & Selma Kadi & Cassandra Simmons, 2022. "Making the Invisible Visible: The Pandemic and Migrant Care Work in Long-Term Care," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Mariña Fernández-Reino & Madeleine Sumption & Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2020. "From low-skilled to key workers: the implications of emergencies for immigration policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 382-396.
    4. Francesco Fasani & Jacopo Mazza, 2023. "Being on the Frontline? Immigrant Workers in Europe and the COVID-19 Pandemic," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(5), pages 890-918, October.
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