03.-04.03.2025 Oldenburg / Online.
Hybrid Workshop
Ethical Aspects of Migrant Live-in Care in Context: International Perspectives
Date: March 3rd & 4th 2025
Venue: Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, V04-0-033 and Online
Video-Conference link: upon registration
Organization: Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda (Ethics in Medicine, Oldenburg, Germany), Anna-Eva Nebowsky (Ethics in Medicine & Prevention and Rehabilitation Research, Oldenburg, Germany), Dr. Milena von Kutzleben (Prevention and Rehabilitation Research, Oldenburg, Germany), Dr. Natalie Ulitsa (School of Social Work, Ramat Gan, Israel), Prof. Dr. Liat Ayalon (School of Social Work, Ramat Gan, Israel)
In the face of population ageing, changing familial care structures, and a widespread shortage of professional nursing staff, migrant live-in care arrangements play a crucial role in the provision of eldercare in many Western countries. The structural framework conditions of this often precarious form of care have found extensive empirical investigation and critical discussion in recent years, for example, with regard to legal regulations, socio-economic implications, or care chain and care drain phenomena. However, there is a lack of in-depth empirical insights and systematic ethical analyses regarding the micro-level of live-in care: How does the introduction of migrant live-in carers change the moral structures of domestic care arrangements, practices, and responsibilities? What moral claims and conflicts emerge between the different parties involved (live-in carers, family members, professional nursing staff)? How do different cultural contexts and national framework conditions shape, regulate and resolve the moral issues arising in these arrangements?
This workshop brings together current interdisciplinary research perspectives on ethical aspects of migrant home care arrangements in different national contexts. The workshop is organized in three thematic sections that each focus on ethical issues in migrant live-in care and highlight these from different national or transnational perspectives. The first section is concerned with ethical questions of care, autonomy and vulnerability, comprising the fundamental understanding and moral implications of care itself and the respective autonomy and vulnerabilities of the different parties involved. The second section shifts to transnational perspectives on live-in care and focuses on dementia within this specific care arrangement. The third section is centered around issues of stigma, justice, and discrimination in the context of live-in care and highlights the multiple and intersecting forms of stigmatization, marginalization, and discrimination characteristic for this kind of care arrangement.
Registration: The number of places is limited. Please register as in-person or online participant by sending an email to Anna-Eva.Nebowsky@uol.de until February 7th.
Contact: Anna-Eva Nebowsky
E-Mail: Anna-Eva.Nebowsky@uol.de
Workshop Schedule:
Day 1 (12.30-16.15)
12.30-12.45
Welcome to the (hybrid) workshop: Mark Schweda
12.45-13.45
Session 1: Care, autonomy and vulnerability (Chair: Natalie Ulitsa)
12.45-13.15
Presentation 1:
Anna-Eva Nebowsky, Mark Schweda & Milena von Kutzleben (GER, in person)
Entangled vulnerabilities in live-in care arrangements in Germany
13.15-13.45
Presentation 2:
Milena Kriegsmann-Rabe (GER, in person)
Autonomy and self-determination of live-ins & research as an ambiguous process
13.45-14.15
Coffee Break
14.15-15.45
Session 2: Transnational live-in care (Chair: Anna-Eva Nebowsky)
14.15-15.15
Presentation 1:
Brigitte Aulenbacher & Wasana Handapangoda (AUS, online)
The making of a vulnerable workforce: evidence from domestic work and home care brokerage in Austria and Sri Lanka
15.15-15.45
Presentation 2:
Ruth Bartlett (UK, in person)
Building an ethical evidence-base for live-in care when dementia is the primary support need
15.45-16.15
Discussion and conclusion for the day
Day 2 (10.00-12.15)
10.00-11.30
Session 3: Stigma, Justice, and Discrimination (Chair: Milena von Kutzleben)
10.00-10.30
Presentation 1:
Anna-Henrikje Seidlein (GER, online)
Shedding light on relationships in migrant live-in arrangements
10.30-11.00
Presentation 2:
Natalie Ulitsa and Liat Ayalon (ISR, in person)
Moral challenges of migrant home care at times of war
11.00-11.30
Presentation 3:
Li-Fang Liang (TW, online)
The paradoxes of feminist care ethics: examining the intersectionality of live-in migrant care work in Taiwan
11.30-11.45
Coffee Break
11.45-12.15
Discussion & Outlook (Mark Schweda)