MILES: Migrant Labour in the Elder Care Sectors

MILES is a pan-European network of researchers , established with the view to carrying out comparative investigations of the extent, nature, causes and ramifications of increasing numbers of migrant workers employed in the elder care sector. The network is funded by NORFACE for a period of 3 years. The co-ordinating partner is the Oxford Institute on Ageing (Drs Hoff and Leeson). Within the Irish strand of NORFACE (January 2007 - September 2008), joint Principal Investigators Virpi Timonen and Martha Doyle investigated workers in the formal and informal care sector.

The purpose of the study was fourfold:

• to gain an understanding of migrant care workers’ understandings, experiences and aspirations regarding their social protection and the Irish welfare state
• to explore their personal (transnational) care and support responsibilities
• to identify their perceptions of the multi-cultural workplace
• to explore their perceptions of the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ of employment in the Irish long-term care sector.

Download the research brief (PDF format 164kb).
In addition to the research brief, journal articles were published in the European Journal of Women's Studies, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society , Ageing & Society and the Journal of Social Policy