Precarious Expats: The Social and Work Integration of Italian Healthcare Workers in Germany During the Pandemic

Abstract

This paper explores the complex experiences of Italian healthcare workers in Germany, focusing on the evolving meaning of the term “expat” amid increasing precarization. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the study reveals how these workers navigate a dual identity, simultaneously marked by relative privilege as EU citizens and deepening vulnerability as foreign workers in the German care sector. Although often distancing themselves from the label “migrant,” participants experience structural downgrading, deskilling, and various forms of exclusion that challenge their self-construction and social integration. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated these tensions, amplifying the process of precarization both at the workplace and in the social relations within the German context. Moreover, informal barriers embedded in social relations entail a self-perception fostering a liminal identity between privileged EU citizens and marginalized third-country nationals. The concept of Precarious Expats encapsulates this ambiguous position and calls attention to how EU mobility, once framed as upwardly mobile and cosmopolitan, now intersects with broader dynamics of inequality rooted in North-South and intra-EU polarizations. Ultimately, the research highlights the everyday struggles faced by Italian healthcare workers attempting to build stable lives within a system that enforces precarity.