Care regimes and national employment models

Rapid population ageing has dramatically increased the social and economic cost of elderly care. As a consequence of the search for cost effectiveness/reduction we observe a convergence in how the care market is organised: all countries are moving towards home care, private provision and cash transfers. The aim of this paper is twofold. It is argued that the way in which elderly care is provided and financed may entail considerable differences in the creation of a formal care market. National employment models in turn shape the features of the care labour market, affecting both the quantity and quality of care labour supply, the extent of the care labour shortage, and the degree of dependence on migrant carers. This paper presents a comparative analysis of various European country models of elderly care to show how these two factors combine to shape the characteristics of elderly care regimes, and their differing capacity to meet increasing demand for care either by using native workers or, alternatively, by turning to immigrant workers in order to cope with labour shortages.