Joint recommendation for migrant care workers and service users to be included in the upcoming EU Care Strategy

On March 29, 2022, EFSI have joint forces with other stakeholders to propose common recommendations for the EU Care Strategy, focusing on migrants as both care workers and services recipients.

The statement underlines that home care arrangements often include both care and household services and that they involve professional skillsets. To address this versant of the European reality, the following six topics are covered by the recommendations: Access to care (1) for migrant people is contingent of legal, practical, and administrative barriers. Furthermore, migrants are most likely to face poverty or social exclusion, hence affordability (2) struggles affect migrant as care workers. Hence, MS must invest in appropriate social protection for the people working in the sector, disregarding their overall status.

Also, care provision needs to be sustainable (3), allowing for decent working conditions for the workforce. Onwards, MS should implement measures to ensure that care services are provided on the declared market by facilitating procedures and by separating the duties of labour inspectors and immigration enforcements.

Then, the quality of care (4) must be addressed by MS and EC through the recognition and certification of previously acquired skills and their improvement through publicly-subsidised participation to training. Migrant care workforce (5) is entirely part of the provision of care. Hence, they ought to be included in the forthcoming EU Care Strategy by improved working conditions and pay, ensuring more international recruitments and acknowledging informal carers.

Finally, the care sector is embedded by gendered aspects (6) – being a mostly female sector. Particularly, migrant women, face higher risks of exploitation, abuse, violence of discrimination while providing care services. 

Read the full statement here.