Live-in care on trial
The failed promise of solidarity in European care governance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16592389 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Petra Ezzeddine (0000-0002-0097-3422, Charles University, corresponding author), Maroš Matiaško (0009-0004-8893-4269, Charles University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-19 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economy and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03085147.2026.2631338 |
| OpenAlex | W7154096222 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 29 |
Although public debate casts the European care crisis as a demographic challenge and a labour shortage, its deeper causes lie in the erosion of solidaristic commitments within welfare regimes. While international human rights law and EU human rights frameworks proclaim commitments to dignity, equality and decent work, the rights of migrant live-in care workers remain largely symbolic, undermined by fragmented regulation, weak enforcement and institutionalized ambiguity. This paper advances the human rights perspective on care grounded in solidarity, one that could reconfigure EU governance of care beyond the precarious commodification of migrant labour. It approaches the care crisis as a governance crisis and analyses how solidarity operates both as a legitimizing discourse and as a hollowed-out principle within European welfare regimes. Through the socio-legal analysis of the 2021 German Federal Labour Court judgment in the case of Ms Dobrina Alekseva, a Bulgarian live-in caregiver whose claim for unpaid wages exposed the limits of legal recognition, the paper traces how human rights are enacted and contested across legal, policy and intimate domains of care. The discussed case illustrates that current regimes can sustain a form of de-solidarization in which rights remain largely symbolic, and in care relations, care workers bear the greatest risks.
Corporate governance · Economic governance · European union · Solidarity · Dispute Resolution and Class Actions · Energy Law and Policy · Patient Dignity and Privacy
Solidarity as a Human Right
The New Maids
Care Ethics, Democratic Citizenship and the State
Live-in migrant care worker arrangements in Germany and the Netherlands
The Rights of Others
Four Uses of “Solidarity”
Citizenship and the Ethics of Care
Care economies
Extracting care from women on the move
The quiet collapse
Home care provision in dispute
Labour Rights for Live-In Care Workers
Care Work Migration in Germany
Human rights and care homes for older people
The ‘Consumer Principle’ in the Care of Elderly People
Crossing the Border for Higher Status? Occupational Mobility of East–West Commuters in the Central European Region
The Human Rights of Older Persons
Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism
Time as Technique
Family ideology
Transgressing the Nation-State
| Citations per year | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2027 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |