Who cares?: An ethnographic research on the workforce integration of first-generation immigrants in geriatric care in the Netherlands and Germany

Ham, A.

In response to the shortage of nursing staff and the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, two residential homes invited first-generation immigrants with a refugee background to participate in a project for nursing education, orientation and internships. Between 2015 and 2018, a group of ten immigrants started working in a Dutch residential home and a group of seventeen immigrants in the German home. This dissertation investigates the social processes when these newcomers start working with the established staff, as well as the extent to which their mutual interactions and values of good care influence the enactment of geriatric care. Using ethnographic observations (305 hours), in-depth interviews (44) and six focus groups (24), the established care workers and immigrants were followed in both homes. The empirical data shows that institutional constraints, such as staff shortage, the imposition of professional norms, gossip used as a ‘weapon of the weak’, mutual suspicions of...Show moreIn response to the shortage of nursing staff and the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, two residential homes invited first-generation immigrants with a refugee background to participate in a project for nursing education, orientation and internships. Between 2015 and 2018, a group of ten immigrants started working in a Dutch residential home and a group of seventeen immigrants in the German home. This dissertation investigates the social processes when these newcomers start working with the established staff, as well as the extent to which their mutual interactions and values of good care influence the enactment of geriatric care. Using ethnographic observations (305 hours), in-depth interviews (44) and six focus groups (24), the established care workers and immigrants were followed in both homes. The empirical data shows that institutional constraints, such as staff shortage, the imposition of professional norms, gossip used as a ‘weapon of the weak’, mutual suspicions of indifference, and collective images of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ affected the enactment of geriatric care. Their habitus stimulated them to tinker among each other as well as with different, sometimes conflicting, values of good care. However, both groups shared the feeling of ignorance by management, a pain of not mattering.
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Who cares? An ethnographic research on the workforce integration of first-generation immigrants in geriatric care in the Netherlands and Germany

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