Contingent on paradoxical policies
Migrants' trajectories to permanent residence and skilled care work in Denmark
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3632334 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L Sparre (0000-0001-7586-4899), Stine Hauberg Nielsen (0009-0007-8071-540X) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 13 |
| Pages | 3243-3261 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369183x.2024.2419966 |
| OpenAlex | W4403891883 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 39 |
Syrian refugees and Ukrainian labour migrants are among the increasing number of migrants in Denmark who have enrolled in training programmes to become skilled care workers in response to the Danish state’s initiatives to increase labour supply for public-sector elderly care. However, stricter immigration legislation together with regulations concerning state-financed education complicate training, employment and residence for these migrants. This article explores how the Danish welfare state’s conflicting interests in and attempts at pursuing both a strict immigration policy and securing enough trained care workers in eldercare affect trajectories to skilled care work among foreign nationals residing in Denmark. Based on data from long-term ethnographic fieldwork, we demonstrate how in various ways Syrian and Ukrainian care work trainees with temporary residence face a double-sided uncertainty, as their lives in Denmark are contingent on events and decisions out of their control, such as amendments to immigration and educational policies and legislation. On the one hand, these events and decisions jeopardize the migrant trainees’ and their families’ future in Denmark. On the other hand, they offer opportunities to make new connections and acquire new knowledge and skills, which in the longer run may contribute to improving their lives in Denmark
Care work · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economics · Irregular migration · Labour economics · Political science · Residence · Sociology · Work (physics · Employment and Welfare Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Migrant Carers in Elder Care Provision
Revisiting the Nordic long-term care model for older people—still equal?
The New American Servitude
Waiting and the Temporalities of Irregular Migration
Converting experiences in ‘communities of practice’
Flight and Exile—Uncertainty in the Context of Conflict-Induced Displacement
‘Are We Going to Stay Refugees?’ Hyper-Precarious Processes in and Beyond the Danish Integration Programme
A Job with No Boundaries
Hyper-precarious lives
Labour geography 1
Enter the myopticon
The Emerging Migration State
The global bases of inequality regimes
Tracing the future of migrants' labour relations. Experiences of institutionalised migrant precarity in Denmark and Greece
Migration as Feminisation? Chinese Women's Experiences of Work and Family in Australia
Out of Time
Becoming Part of Welfare Scandinavia
Welfare state bordering as a form of mobility and migration control
Convoluted mobility
Family Strategies and Transnational Migration
From Integration to Deportation
Ideal Workers and Suspects
Glocalising Care in the Nordic Countries
Constituting Immigrant Care Workers Through Gendering and Racialising Practices in Education
Precariat - What it Is and Isn't - Towards an Understanding of What it Does
Anthropology of Aging and Care
Writing Against Integration
| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |