Work

A global migration industry in local contexts: Home care and domestic work brokerage in Austria and Sri Lanka

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article investigates the transnational marketization and corporatization of domestic services by brokers. Polanyian, institutional logics, and intersectional perspectives and findings on capitalism and violence provide a theoretical framework to understand brokerage as mode of service provision creating and shaping hybrid and unequal work and care arrangements. The Austrian context is a paradigmatic example for the European mode of senior home care provision by recruiting female migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe and placing them in Austrian middle- and upper-class households. The Sri Lankan context is a paradigmatic example for a labour brokerage state, which exploits (paid) household labour of women that satisfy the needs of upper- and middle-class households in the Middle East. Contextual global sociology offers a critical lens to compare the ways in which brokerage is politically, socially, and culturally embedded and creates similar and different modes of service provision based on social inequalities.

Source: International Sociology

DOI: 10.1177/02685809251318642

Authors: Brigitte Aulenbacher, Wasana Handapangoda

Institutions: Johannes Kepler University of Linz, University of Vienna

Language: English

Topic: Migration and Labor Dynamics

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth, Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650