'Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)': Zimbabwean migrants and the UK care industry
'Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)': Zimbabwean migrants and the UK care industry
复制标题
DOI：
10.1080/13691830701359249
复制
发表时间：
2007-01-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
McGregor, JoAnn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McGregor, JoAnn
这篇文章通过研究津巴布韦女性和男性在英国作为护理人员工作的叙述，为关于“全球护理链”的文献做出了贡献。它调查了为什么社会关怀成为津巴布韦人就业的一个重要焦点，并探讨了不同法律地位的移民在不同部门谈判工作的方式。这篇文章探讨了一个受过高等教育的中产阶级移民群体的经历，他们在经济和政治危机不断加深的背景下离开了自己的国家。一些津巴布韦人能够利用跨国流动和护理工作作为一种应对手段，找到机会履行家庭义务和个人抱负，而企业家则找到了作为护理机构开展业务的机会，为他们的同胞和其他人提供工作。然而，这篇文章还强调了大多数津巴布韦护理人员在试图通过长时间的低地位且往往是微薄的工作来养活自己和家属时所经历的压力和去杀伤力，在高度女性化和种族主义的工作场所工作的压力，以及非正式行为造成的不安全感和虐待，包括“捆绑”和其他形式的劳工剥削。有必要更多地关注社会护理工作场所的种族和性别动态，以及确保移民护理人员权利的手段，他们在照顾英国社会中一些最脆弱的成员方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。
This article contributes to the literature on 'global care chains' by examining the narratives of Zimbabwean women and men working as carers in the UK. It investigates why social care has become an important focus of employment for Zimbabweans, and explores the means by which migrants of different legal status have negotiated work in a diverse sector. The article explores the experiences of a highly educated, middle-class migrant group, who left their country in the context of deepening economic and political crisis. Some Zimbabweans have been able to use transnational mobility and care work as a means of coping, finding opportunities to meet family obligations and personal ambitions, while entrepreneurs have found openings to set up in business as care agencies, providing work for their compatriots and others. Yet the article also emphasises the stress and deskilling most Zimbabwean care workers have experienced in trying to support themselves and dependents through excessive hours of low-status and often poorly paid work, the strain of working in strongly feminised and racialised workplaces, and the insecurities and abuse produced by informality, including 'tied' and other forms of labour exploitation. There is a need for greater attention to be paid to the dynamics of race and gender in social care workplaces, and to means of securing the rights of migrant careworkers, who are playing an increasingly important role in caring for some of the most vulnerable members of British society.