Social Policy Research Centre

Markets, Migration & the Work of Care in Australia is an Australian Research Council-funded project being conducted by a research team across four institutions: UNSW, RMIT, University of Sydney, and University of Toronto. It is being led by four Chief Investigators: Professor Deborah Brennan (UNSW), Professor Sara Charlesworth (RMIT), Dr Elizabeth Hill (Sydney), and Professor Ito Peng (Toronto).
In recent decades, the shift to the market with the introduction of cash payments and consumer-directed care have created new employment relationships and service demands in childcare and aged care, such as nannies and home-based personal carers for the elderly. It is unclear who will staff these emerging care markets, especially the non-professional jobs that are low paid and regarded as low skilled. One response – widespread in Europe and North America – is to turn to migration. Should Australia follow this path? What practical and ethical issues are raised by care migration?
This three year Australian Research Council Discovery project aims to
This strand will map the shifts in care policies and financing mechanisms since the late 1980s that underpin current Australian aged care and childcare provision. It will also map relevant trends in labour regulation and migration.
This strand focuses on New Zealand and Canada to draw out similarities and differences with Australian care markets, employment and migration regulation and policy with Australia, focusing on the lessons to be learned from the distinctive practices of each country.
This strand will investigate, through data analysis and in-depth interviews, the pathways through which migrant workers find employment in childcare and aged care and the lived experiences of those undertaking this work.
For a project taster, watch ‘The truth about our care workers’
Social Policy Research Centre
Care | Policy Design, Impact and Evaluation
Australian Research Council – Discovery Program