Gauthier, Carol-Anne

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Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec àMontréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. Érudit offre des services d'édition numérique de documentsscientifiques depuis 1998.Pour communiquer avec les responsables d'Érudit : info@erudit.org Compte rendu Ouvrage recensé : Globalizing Care Economies and Migrant Workers: Explorations in Global Care Chains By NicolaYeates, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 258 pp., ISBN 978-0-23000-534-1. par Carol-Anne GauthierRelations industrielles / Industrial Relations, vol. 64, n° 4, 2009, p. 707-708.   Pour citer ce compte rendu, utiliser l'adresse suivante : URI: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/038882arDOI: 10.7202/038882arNote : les règles d'écriture des références bibliographiques peuvent varier selon les différents domaines du savoir.Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politiqued'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter à l'URI https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/Document téléchargé le 12 février 2017 10:25reCensions / booK revieWs 707puisque des parallèles peuvent être tracés avec leur propre réalité. Destiné à des étudiants ou des citoyens en quête de sens, bien plus qu’à des spécialistes qui y verront sans doute une synthèse des écrits sur la question, l’ouvrage de Françoise Piotet permet de dégager des liens et de cerner les enjeux relatifs aux évolutions du travail et de l’emploi. Catherine BeaudryUniversité du Québec à RimouskiGlobalizing Care economies and migrant Workers: explorations in Global Care ChainsBy Nicola Yeates, New York: Palgrave Macmil-lan, 2009, 258 pp., ISBN 978-0-23000-534-1.The aim of this book is to advance a new, global analysis of care through the explora-tion of global nursing care chains. These are defined as the equivalent of global production chains, as applied to the study of production and migration of nurses. Yeates argues that two elements must be understood: the per-sonal experiences of these nurses, and the fea-tures of wider social systems. To do this, the author highlights the transnational features of global nursing care chains as well as their place within global social hierarchy construction and reproduction. The author, through an histori-cal approach, focuses on migrant nurses, and then compares their situation to that of female religious. This term, which is somewhat am-biguous, is taken to mean nuns. This approach allows her to highlight common aspects of fe-male care migration, and to differentiate con-text-specific elements that help understand the complexities of global care chains.The introductory chapter outlines the book’s theoretical perspective, empirical approach and pertinence. The author characterizes her approach as being globalist, institutionalist, labourist and feminist, with a focus on transna-tional structures and practices of care. Chapter two reviews the various bodies of literature and theoretical perspectives, paying particular attention to the globalization of reproductive labour. The author concludes that the litera-ture says little about how social reproductive labour has become globalized. Chapter three then develops the core concept of global care chains, expanding the concept from produc-tion to reproduction (care). Chapters four through seven represent the empirical core of the book, with chapters four through six dealing with nursing, and chapter seven, with global religious care chains. More specifically, chapter four offers an historical perspective of the production of nurses for export as well as recruitment systems and their regulation. Here Yeates highlights the inequalities in power and territorial reach of the state, recruitment agencies and the workers. Then, chapter five provides a case study of Irish nurse migration in order to illustrate the importance of colo-nial land structure, employment opportunities in the homeland, and the potential for class and gender conflicts as factors influencing states’ decisions to encourage such migra-tion. Chapter six explores the reversal of the care chain; that is, the import of nurses into Ireland. Historically, Ireland exported nurses to England and to developing countries, but that trend is now reversed. The author draws atten-tion to the fact that Asia is now the beginning of the global nursing care chain. She focuses on working relations involving migrant nurses in Ireland and the “double helix” of nurs-ing and motherly care. This concept is used to explain that the transfer of nursing care from the source country to the host country is intertwined with the transfer of motherly care because most nurses are also mothers. Moth-erly care is modified because the nurses now must mother their children from afar, since their children rarely migrate with them. In chapter seven, the discussion turns to global religious care chains, in order to compare and contrast them to global nursing care chains. Religious care is not clearly defined by the author, but is taken to include the provi-sion of health, education and social welfare services by workers in faith-based NGOs. Thus, it is unclear as to whether it is neces-sarily provided by nuns. However, migration flow is different in that it is from developed (core) to developing (periphery) countries, and it usually requires that nuns be separated from their birth family, thus enabling their hyper-mobility. The aim of this comparison is to show that female religious migrants played an important role in shaping the nursing profes-sion as well as its globalization. In the eighth and final chapter, the author concludes that by selecting nurses, comparing them to nuns, and conducting interviews with the migrant 708 relations industrielles / industrial relations – 64-4, 2009 nurses, she broadens the focus of the study of female migration (which usually concerns motherly care), thus revealing its complexity as well as the diversity of sectors involved.A central theme of the book is global supply chains, which highlight the relation-ship between peripheral and core countries. An important feature of this relationship is the relative transfer of wealth from peripheral to core countries, in the form of care labour. The author shows how the export of nurses has lead many countries to face a nursing labour shortage, such as is the case in Ireland, caus-ing it to switch from being an exporter to an importer of nurses.Another of the book’s main themes about of the experience lived by female migrant nurses, especially with regards to family dynamics. In contrast to religious labour, contemporary nurses view migration as a family project, either to send money home to aid extended family, or as a way to improve their immediate family’s situation by bringing their husbands and children to live in the host country. In order to capture these dynamics, the author performs interviews, thus provid-ing more insight into the lived experience as well as the processes involved. In particular, it is this approach that leads the author to note the importance of the “double helix” of nurs-ing and motherly care.Finally, by discussing the production and training of nurses for export, recruitment, and work relations in the country of migration, the author initiates a discussion on regula-tion of these by states on both sides of the migratory process. This discussion shows the existence of a “global migration-industrial complex,” framed by the institutional context in which it operates. On this topic, the author shows how recruitment agencies and labour go beyond the territoriality of the state, thus making regulation a central concern to global nursing care chains.In spite of its sometimes unclear use of unconventional terms, this book offers a refreshing take on the realities of women who migrate in order to provide care by focusing on skilled labour, and thus paying attention to the agency of these women rather than simply treating them as a homogenous body of unskilled, victimized workers. Furthermore the author succeeds in extracting generaliza-tions from varying contexts in order to provide basic guidelines for further analysis, using such analytical tools as (re-) production process, territoriality and governance.Carol-Anne GauthierUniversité LavalLe deuxième âge de l’émancipation : la société, les femmes et l’emploiPar Dominique Méda et Hélène Périvier, Paris : Seuil, 2007, 110 p., ISBN 978-2-02-091762-9.Cet ouvrage commence par un constat évident – « L’émancipation des femmes est l’un des faits sociaux majeurs de ces cinquante derniè-res années » (p. 5) dans l’ensemble du monde occidental. En France, cette évolution prend des formes singulières : les Françaises conju-guent à la fois un haut niveau d’emploi, une fécondité soutenue et un sentiment dominant d’une dynamique d’émancipation irréversible. Pourtant, notent les auteures, depuis 1970 cette dynamique marque le pas. Les taux d’activité féminine sont toujours inférieurs à ceux des hommes et le rattrapage amorcé dans les années 1960 s’est interrompu ; leurs emplois sont de qualité inférieure et se concen-trent dans les activités de service ; leur temps de travail est plus réduit par rapport à celui des hommes, mais aussi à celui des femmes des générations précédentes; leurs rémunéra-tions sont souvent plus faibles, fréquemment en raison d’une discrimination ; elles sont plus exposées au risque de pauvreté ; elles sont rarement présentes dans des postes à haute responsabilité en raison d’un « plafond de verre » ; enfin, elles assument l’essentiel des tâches familiales et domestiques. L’émancipation des femmes est donc restée inachevée, leur autonomie presque parfaite en droit est tronquée dans la réalité. Cette situa-tion constitue une injustice sociale intolérable. Pour faire justice aux légitimes aspirations de millions de femmes, il importe d’ouvrir un « deuxième âge de l’émancipation », qui implique une profonde réorganisation économique et sociale susceptible de donner aux femmes les moyens de leur liberté. Il ne suffit plus d’assurer l’autonomie des individus par la réduction des entraves au libre choix de chacun, il faut encore assurer une alloca-tion collective des ressources qui permette 

Globalizing Care Economies and Migrant Workers: Explorations in Global Care Chains By Nicola Yeates, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 258 pp., ISBN 978-0-23000-534-1.

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Globalizing Care Economies and Migrant Workers: Explorations in Global Care Chains By Nicola Yeates, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 258 pp., ISBN 978-0-23000-534-1.

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