„Polityka braku polityki”: imigrantki w polskim sektorze opieki nad osobami starszymi
“A Policy of No Policy”: Immigrant Women in the Polish Elderly Care Sector

Summary/Abstract: The situation of migrant women undertaking work on foreign labour markets is difficult for a number of reasons, since in their case the problems of foreign employees regardless of gender are compounded by the problems that women encounter regardless of their nationality. Until recently, Poland did not have a problem of demand for foreign labour force, the number of immigrants flowing into the country was relatively low, and there was no immediate opportunity for the issues pertaining to immigrant policy to arise as a subject of public debate. At the same time, the Polish society is aging. Facing the shrinking labour force problem, Polish authorities will most likely have to develop some kind of policy encouraging workers representing diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds to come to the country. The article presents research results concerning immigrants employed as elderly care workers in both formal and informal elderly care sector in Poland. The research was conducted within the framework of an international research project entitled Gendered Citizenship in Multicultural Europe. The Impact of Contemporary Women’s Movements (FEMCIT). The elderly care sector is particularly interesting for those who research the issue of women’s migration for several reasons: firstly, it is predominantly feminized; and secondly, due to the aging of Polish society, the sector will most probably expand and open to the foreign labour force. The research conducted within the FEMCIT project allowed the research team to indicate the main obstacles and challenges that policy-makers will need to overcome in designing the immigration policy.

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