The problematic recruitment of migrant labor: A relational perspective on the agency of care work managers

Abstract

Care organizations in northern Europe recruit increasing numbers of migrant workers, but mostly to low-end jobs and especially to old-age care. According to sociological research, employers and managers play a significant but under-examined role in such recruitment. This article examines the roles played by two care work managers who both have responsibilities in recruitment in a public nursing home in Finland. The article examines the managers’ work through the lens of their occupational agency. Drawing on Emirbayer’s distinction between substantialist and relational sociology, the article adopts a relational perspective on the managers’ agency. Opposite to substantialist studies that operate with analytically pre-given entities (such as agents and structures), the article portrays the managers’ agency as open to relationally changing interpretations. The analysis demonstrates how the managers’ agency in and around recruitment depends on how the recipients of care, migrant workers and their broader political environment are constructed and interpreted. These relationally changing interpretations, the article argues, can serve many functions, including care work managers’ impression management in different situations and, ultimately, the recruitment of migrant workers to (precarious) old-age care.