Au-pair Migration. Geographical and Social Mobility of Young Women between Russia and Germany

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[The au-pair migration programme was originally founded to support the exchange of cultures by arranging a one year sojourn of foreign young people in a local host family. Although recent publications assume that au-pair immigration is misused on the one hand by local households as employing low-wage domestic workers and on the other hand by au-pairs as a "springboard" to permanent settlement only very few migration research on this phenomenon has been carried out as of yet. Taking Russian au-pairs in Germany as an example, this research project aims to explore the fundamental characteristics of au-pair immigration as a specific form of female migration. Based on the theoretical approach of transnational migration, the au-pairs' act of migrating in order to fulfill life plans will be interpreted as a process of transnationalizing biographies. By employing methods of qualitative research the following research question will be raised on a micro level of analysis: What is the meaning and impact of au-pair migration in the life of young Russian women? Attention shall be paid to how statuspassages - the entry into work and partnership - execute in a biography of an au-pair migrant and how or if statuspassages relate to settlement in the host country, return to the home country, or above that foster the creation of transnational social spaces. Furthermore the involvement of macro level structures (especially immigration and employment regulations) and meso level structures (especially formal and informal networks and organizations) and their manifestations in individual biographies will be revealed. Hence, the investigation of au-pair migration sets a strong focus on dynamics and processes in which the individual develops, negotiates and executes her agency against a background of structural conditions.]