Gender, Nativity and Race in Care Work: The More Things Change ….

• In Event: 015 - Regular Session. Care Work/Caring Labor

Abstract

This paper extends American and European research by showing the overlapping axes of disadvantage tied to gender, race, and nativity for individuals engaging in care work in Canada today. Drawing on a rich literature on racialization and migrant disadvantage three core questions are addressed with data from the 2011 National Household Survey of Canada: 1) Who is currently engaged in care work? 2) where are racialized and migrant careworkers found within the matrix of high and low status care work and what explains the nativity and racial composition of specific care sites? 3) And, finally, what is the financial penalty associated with paid care work and what are the added disadvantages for women who are racialized and/or foreign born?
Our focus is on paid, direct care services. Our classification scheme distinguishes between women who work in institutions and those employed in private households, as well as disaggregating work in the health and child care sectors. Due to the shifting nature of immigration sources to Canada, the data highlight the disproportionate representation of Filipino, Black and Arab and West Asian women working in paid care work, as well as the importance of temporary migration in certain low-paid low-status caring occupations located in private homes. Our findings show confirm that nativity status and race are powerful stratification mechanisms, defining which women perform care work, what kind of care work they undertake, and what are the nativity and race specific levels of monetary rewards.

Authors

• Monica Boyd, University of Toronto

• Naomi Lightman, University of Toronto