Marlene who was a member of the CRC 1342 in the first funding period has analysed which and how actors have shaped the institutionalisation process of the migrant-in-the-family care model in Italy.

On Tuesday, 21 March 2023, Marlene Seiffarth successfully defended her PhD dissertation based on her research as part of the project “Transnational Service Provision in Long-term Care between Western and Eastern Europe” (https://www.socialpolicydynamics.de/projects/completed-projects/project-b07-2018-21-/en/) of the first funding period. Her cumulative dissertation entitled “The Perpetuation of the Migrant-in-the-Family Care Model in Italy” is comprised of three first-authored papers, all published in peer-reviewed journals (see links below). In a colourful and thought-provoking presentation, she presented the contributions of her papers to both the academic and policy world. All papers attest to the perpetuation of a care model based upon and reproducing global inequalities. These inequalities manifest in inadequate working conditions for the almost one million (mostly female) migrant care workers in the country, who mainly come from Eastern European countries (63%) and countries of the Global South (37%).  Although informal employment (payment off the books and without social security registration) is wide-spread in the migrant care work sector, the rate of informal employment decreased from 90% in 1995 to 52% in 2021. An important factor in this formalisation process in Italy are the efforts of the collective bargaining social partners – trade unions and employer associations – who have created irrevocable standards in the absence of national policies and outdated legislation, as well as a conducive environment for formalisation via their administrative and legal support services they offer to their members.

 

For more results of Marlene’s research, access her publications:

Seiffarth, M. (2023) Collective bargaining in domestic work and its contribution to regulation and formalization in Italy, International Labour Review, Accepted Author Manuscript, https://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12382

Seiffarth, M. (2022) Potenziale für „gute Arbeit“ im Privathaushalt? Regulierung und Interessenvertretung migrantischer Pflegekräfte in Italien, WSI Mitteilungen 75(5), 386-393, https://www.wsi.de/de/wsi-mitteilungen-regulierung-interessenvertretung-migrantischer-pflegekraefte-in-italien-43650.htm.

Seiffarth, M & Aureli, G. (2022) Social Innovation in Home-Based Eldercare: Strengths and Shortcomings of Integrating Migrant Care Workers into Long-Term Care in Tuscany,
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, Vol. 19 (17), 10602; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710602

Seiffarth, M. (2021) Crisis as Catalyst? Romanian Migrant Care Workers in Italian Home-Based Care Arrangements, Sociológia - Slovak Sociological Review, Vol. 53 (5), 502-520; https://doi.org/10.31577/sociologia.2021.53.5.19