Tackling, encouraging or ignoring? The outmigration of transnational domestic care workers on the political agenda in Poland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/mig.23092.024Keywords:
transnational care work, emigration, Poland, intra-EU mobility, intermediaries, agenda-setting, migration policy and politicsAbstract
Although the topic of attracting EU mobile workers to transnational care sectors has received considerable attention, the perspective of sending countries, particularly with regard to policies concerning the departure of care workers, has not yet been analysed empirically or theoretically. This article aims to address this gap by tracing the agenda-setting process regarding the temporary outmigration of workers from Poland to the care sector abroad between 2004 and 2019. Drawing on qualitative empirical material in the form of 60 expert interviews, the article is framed by Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams model. The analysis confirmed that the mobility of Polish workers in the home care sector was not on the political agenda prior to the pandemic. Key stakeholders in addressing this phenomenon as both an opportunity and a challenge, and in proposing administrative solutions, are care agencies that send workers, and associations representing the interests of the care industry in Poland.
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