The Ethics of Transnational Market Familism: Inequalities and Hierarchies in the Italian Elderly Care

Abstract

This article examines the recent transformations of the Italian welfare state from a familist welfare model to what I term transnational market familism. In this model, families buy in care labour, commonly provided by migrant workers. There is now a growing literature exploring both the transformations of the Italian welfare model and the experiences of migrant workers providing care in Italy. However, what has been overlooked in the current literature is the ethical aspect of this model of welfare provision, which is part of the transnational political economy of care. The article analyses the ethical implications of the migrant-in-the-family model, which transforms the care relationship between the caregiver and care receiver into a complex relationship between the family member organising care, the migrant caregiver and the dependent care receiver. The context of such welfare provision is transnational. Examining this care triangle, I draw on care ethics and individualization perspective for an analysis of how social policies safeguard, or overlook, human interaction and care relationships in the context of global hierarchies. The article draws on ethnographic data gathered in Naples, Italy, during 2004–2005, including interviews with Neapolitan employers and elderly care-receivers, interviews with migrant workers, as well as participant observations.

Keywords:

• Transnational Care
• Political Economy of Care
• Elderly Care
• Care Ethics
• Italy
• Migrant Care Work

Notes

¹The wages of a live-in migrant caregiver during my fieldwork in Naples varied from the lowest 450 euros to an average of 600–700 euros a month. There has been little increase in the wages in the South. I last visited Naples in 2012 and met my old informants who were receiving 600 euros a month for live-in elderly care work. In the North of Italy the wages are somewhat higher. In comparison, the average monthly wage is about 1,500 euros in Italy.

²All names are pseudonyms.

³ILO's Convention on Domestic Workers (2011) is an important step towards more decent working conditions for domestic workers. It will come into effect in 2013, so it is early to say what its concrete impact will be.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Näre

Lena Näre is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki, Department of Social Research