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ERIC Number: EJ789972
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Feb
Pages: 9
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0016-9013
EISSN: N/A
Globalization, Women's Migration, and the Long-Term-Care Workforce
Browne, Colette V.; Braun, Kathryn L.
Gerontologist, v48 n1 p16-24 Feb 2008
With the aging of the world's population comes the rising need for qualified direct long-term-care (DLTC) workers (i.e., those who provide personal care to frail and disabled older adults). Developed nations are increasingly turning to immigrant women to fill these needs. In this article, we examine the impact of three global trends--population aging, globalization, and women's migration--on the supply and demand for DLTC workers in the United States. Following an overview of these trends, we identify three areas with embedded social justice issues that are shaping the DLTC workforce in the United States, with a specific focus on immigrant workers in these settings. These include world poverty and economic inequalities, the feminization and colorization of labor (especially in long-term care), and empowerment and women's rights. We conclude with a discussion of the contradictory effects that both population aging and globalization have on immigrant women, source countries, and the long-term-care workforce in the United States. We raise a number of policy, practice, and research implications and questions. For policy makers and long-term-care administrators in receiver nations such as the United States, the meeting of DLTC worker needs with immigrants may result in greater access to needed employees but also in the continued devaluation of eldercare as a profession. Source (supply) nations must balance the real and potential economic benefits of remittances from women who migrate for labor with the negative consequences of disrupting family care traditions and draining the long-term-care workforce of those countries.
Gerontological Society of America. 1030 15th Street NW Suite 250, Washington, DC 20005. Tel: 202-842-1275; Fax: 202-842-1150; e-mail: geron@geron.org; Web site: http://www.geron.org/journals/gsapub.htm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Policymakers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A