The Impact and Repercussions of the Global Care Chain

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Terminology

3. The Global Care Chain

4. Repercussions

5. Calls for Change

6. Conclusion

Works Cited

1. Introduction

It is not easy to take care of another family while one's own family, just as much, needs a mother, a daughter, or a wife. However, sometimes the circumstances do not leave room for any other option, which is the case for many women worldwide. They find themselves in a so-called Global Care Chain, a term coined by Arlie Hochschild that "is now considered an important analytic category for the worldwide increasing feminisation of migration" (Lutz & Palenga-Mollenbeck 139). There is a grand link between globali­sation, care, and migration (Yeates 2004 369). The latter "has alleviated various labour shortages in the private and public health sectors" (Ni She & Joye 111). In doing so, "uneven dependencies and labor exploitation" (Borneman 296) are accompanied. This concept falls prey to many critics because it reproduces inequalities "by redistributing care resources, particularly emotional care labour, from those in poorer countries for con­sumption by those in richer ones" (Yeates 2011 373). Regardless of the critique, it is still widely spread because of migrant workers' economic dependency. This paper will pro­vide a deep insight into the concept of the Global Care Chain. It will address the inequal­ities it is linked to while looking at its impact regarding its social costs and its repercus­sions on family and children.

2. Terminology

To fully comprehend the concept of the Global Care Chain, one must first define the pertinent terminology. Therefore, this chapter is dedicated to explaining what the term 'care' entails and what 'care workers' are. "The concept of 'care' covers a range of tasks and activities to promote the personal health and welfare of people who cannot, or who are not inclined to, perform those activities themselves" (Yeates 2011 371). These tasks and activities cover a broad spectrum "ranging from highly intimate social, health and sexual care services to less intimate ones such as cooking, cleaning, ironing and general maintenance work (371). Care connected to the Global Care Chain and migrant workers "becomes a commodity unequally distributed by class" (Borneman 296). Because of the fear of not being able to provide for their family, women are somewhat forced, obliged and trapped to leave everything behind and work for the care needs of families in devel­oped countries. Thus, care work denotes "physical and emotional activities that involve caring for, looking after, helping to bring up, advising, educating, nursing and supporting dependent and non-dependent members of a private household" (Lutz & Palenga-Mol- lenbeck 140). In accordance with Nicola Yeates (2012), Lutz and Palenga-Mollenbeck also argue that one needs to keep in mind that care does occur in household settings and institutional ones such as "nurseries, hospitals, care homes, schools, offices and hotels" (Yeates 139). While family members do not get paid for providing daily care work for other family members, hired migrant workers do not receive enough payment either. The little payment of care work reflects that "wage labor is still valorized over care work" (Borneman 296). "A free market ideology (often framed as a neoliberal project) is used to legitimate this valorization as well as to devalue all forms of activity and life that are not assimilable to the logic of markets and profit" (296). This way of thinking needs to be discontinued since care work needs to be recognized as what it is - namely, a practical way to reduce the workload, especially for the people living in more affluent countries.

3. The Global Care Chain

Arlie Hochschild coined the term Global Care Chain to describe an arrangement be­tween families in which women from poorer countries leave their own families to care for children or elderly people of "well-off families" (Nadasen 124).

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