Migrant workers in European informal health care settings

Care for the elderly in Europe increasingly depends on migrant carers, both in institutionalised and informal care settings. For the latter, the vulnerability of migrant carers working in private households has been described in several studies. Austria is a EU member state that made attempts to legalise the grey labour market of home care by several legislative changes, providing a framework of regulations to foster inclusion of migrant care workers into schemes of social protection. It can serve as an example how attempts of inclusion also make room for in-built mechanisms of exclusion, and how public health issues are related to economic considerations of a “care market”, with migrant workers as important, yet rather voiceless, stakeholders.