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    The employment of migrant nannies in the UK: negotiating social class in an open market for commoditised in-home care

    Busch, Nicky (2013) The employment of migrant nannies in the UK: negotiating social class in an open market for commoditised in-home care. Social & Cultural Geography 14 (5), pp. 541-557. ISSN 1464-9365.

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    Abstract

    Migrant women are important sources of labour in the commoditised in-home childcare sector in many regions of the UK. Jobs in this sector, which include nannies as well as au pairs, babysitters, housekeepers and mothers' helps, are often low paid and low status with pay and conditions being determined by employers' circumstances and whims. This article draws on primary data and secondary sources to illustrate the ways in which employers compare migrant nannies with British nannies and other childcare workers in terms of the social class and formal education levels of different groups, with the aim of explaining why migrants are perceived as high-quality candidates for what are often low-paid, low-status jobs. I argue that employers negotiate inter-class relations in this gendered form of employment by understanding their relationship with the migrant nannies they have employed in the context of broader global inequalities—these inequalities are then reproduced and reaffirmed in private homes and across UK culture and society.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Author’s Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Social & Cultural Geography 2013, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14649365.2012.736528
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): class, gender, nannies, domestic workers, employers, migrant workers
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 30 Apr 2014 08:05
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:10
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/9651

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