Pragmatic inattention and win-win narratives : How Finnish eldercare managers make sense of foreign-born care workers’ structural disadvantage?

The chapter examines the ways in which eldercare managers (e.g. head nurses, home care supervisors, ward managers) in Finland can justify the increasing recruitment of foreign-born workers to lower-level eldercare jobs that are decreasingly attractive to Finnish-born workers. The question we ask is, how can eldercare managers discursively cope with the potential criticism according to which the prevailing recruitment and employment tendencies exploit actors in structurally disadvantaged labor market positions? Our analysis demonstrates how eldercare managers can maintain affectively appealing impressions of their own actions by constructing foreign-born workers as subjects who are inherently interested in eldercare work, and less interested in wages and working conditions. When eldercare managers’ self-presentations depend on these win-win narratives, foreign-born workers’ abilities to mobilize counter-narratives at their workplace are highly limited.The chapter examines the ways in which eldercare managers (e.g. head nurses, home care supervisors and ward managers) in Finland can justify the increasing recruitment of foreign-born workers to lower-level eldercare jobs that are decreasingly attractive to Finnish-born workers. The question asked is: How can eldercare managers discursively cope with the potential criticism according to which the prevailing recruitment and employment tendencies exploit actors in structurally disadvantaged labor market positions? Our analysis demonstrates how eldercare managers can maintain affectively appealing impressions of their own actions by constructing foreign-born workers as subjects who are inherently interested in eldercare work and less interested in wages and working conditions. When eldercare managers’ self-presentations depend on these win-win narratives, foreign-born workers’ abilities to mobilize counter-narratives at their workplace are highly limited.Peer reviewe

Love’s Labour’s Lost? : Separation as a Constraint on Displays of Transnational Daughterhood

This article develops sociological knowledge on daughterhood through an analysis of how separation shapes the emotional and moral dynamics of transnational daughterhood. Building on Finch, we look at daughtering as a set of concrete social practices that constitute kinship and carry the symbolic dimension of displaying the family-like character of relationships. Within this framework, we analyse how Latin American women living in Barcelona discuss their transnational family lives and filial responsibilities. We see family as finite, evolving in the past, present and future, and develop a threefold understanding of filial love as an institution imbued with formal expectations, a strong and complex emotion, and reciprocal embodied caring. We consider persisting physical separation in migration as a circumstance that demands not only practical solutions but also ongoing moral labour that sustains transnational bonds and notions of being a ‘good enough’ daughter.Peer reviewe

Street-Level Engagements : Migrated Families Encountering the Local Welfare State [Introduction]

Peer reviewe

Vårdarbetets "Marior" och "Marthor" skrev ner sina minnen

Recension av: Hoitotyön muistot. Red. Helga Tahvanainen & Juha Nirkko. Helsinki 2000 (SKS). 384 s., ill

Intersections of old age, migrancy and social disadvantage

Non peer reviewe

Migrants face Barriers to Obtaining Electronic Identification : A population-based Study Among Older Russian-speakers in Finland

As digital technologies continue to transform health care and health systems, they will continue to have a lasting impact on health services. Many health and social care services have rapidly become ‘digital by default’. The electronic identification (e-ID) technology is needed for secure authentication to digital services. Recent studies have shown that the ‘digital divide’ is prominent between ethnic minorities and the majority populations and between older and younger adults. Inequalities related to not having an e-ID, which is in many countries required to access digital health services, remain under-researched. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge of the use of digital services among older migrants. This study analyses general socio-demographic as well as migration specific factors that may be associated with not having an e-ID among older migrants. We used the Care, Health and Ageing of Russian-speaking Minority in Finland (CHARM) study, which is a nationally representative survey of community-dwelling Russian-speaking adults aged ≥ 50 years living in Finland (N = 1082, 57% men, mean age 63.2 years, standard deviation 8.4 years, response rate 36%). Our results showed that 21% of older Russian-speakers did not have an e-ID. Our regression analysis showed that older age and poorer economic situation were associated with a lower probability of having an e-ID. In addition, we found an association between not speaking local languages and not having an e-ID. This may relate to private banks regulating the requirements for obtaining the most common e-ID method, online banking ID. We argue that for individuals who are already in vulnerable positions, current e-ID practices might pose yet another obstacle to obtaining the health services they need and are entitled to.Peer reviewe

Born in the USA: Exceptionalism in Maternity Care Organisation Among High-Income Countries

In lay terms, childbirth is regarded as a purely biological event: what is more natural than birth and death? On the other hand, social scientists have long understood that \'natural\' events are socially structured. In the case of birth, sociologists have examined the social and cultural shaping of its timing, outcome, and the organization of care throughout the perinatal period. Continuing in this tradition, we examine the peculiar social design of birth in the United States of America, contrasting this design with the ways birth is organised in Europe. We begin by showing how several key characteristics of the US health care system – including its inherent social inequality, its high level of medicalisation, and the substantial influence of private medical practice and insurance companies – influence the organization of maternity care there. We then explore how cultural characteristics of American society – its emphasis on individuality, the influence of moral conservatism in US politics, and the ease with which ordinary people take court action (the so-called \'litigation culture\') – shape the delivery of care at birth. We conclude with a consideration of the implications of US maternity care exceptionalism for comparative sociological analysis.Pregnancy, Comparative Studies, Exceptionalism, United States, Midwifery, Maternity Care, Birth

Glokalisoituva hoiva pohjoismaissa - teemanumeron johdanto

Non peer reviewe

Social Service Professional or Market Expert? Maternity Care Relations under Neoliberal Healthcare Reform

Recent developments in the organization and practice of healthcare, driven by the introduction of (quasi-) markets and privatization, are altering traditional forms of professionalism found in high- and middle-income countries. Yet there remains debate about whether these neoliberal trends are universal or country specific, and whether they have any effect (positive or negative) on health service delivery. This article develops a comparative analysis that focuses on changes in maternity service systems in four countries in Northern Europe and the Americas with primarily publicly financed healthcare systems: the UK, Finland, Chile and Canada. The article begins with a discussion of the continuum of professional forms found in the post-Second World War period and their relationship to different kinds of welfare e states. It then focuses on the impact of recent neoliberal reforms on the ideological projects of the medical and allied health professions in the four case examples. The results show that variation across time and place is mainly the result of structural/ economic factors and that various forms of professional discourses are the result of the public/private ways that healthcare systems are organized. The article concludes with suggestions for further comparative sociological research