Between domestic and professional: Ambiguities of the migrant carer position in the private household

The aim of this article is to understand the ambiguities of the care work position and the relationships embedded in paid caring within private households by drawing on the gendered lens of employment relations theory. While the blurred boundaries between domestic-like and professional relations in care work are well documented, this article contributes to understanding the role of indeterminacy of labour in the maintenance of this ambiguousness. Through eleven narrative interviews with circular migrant carers from Croatia working in Austria, Italy and Germany, the study reveals how carers understand the power dynamics inherent in their position as employees in triangular employment relationships. Carers navigate conflicting demands from two authority figures – care receivers and their family members – while the role of intermediary agencies remains largely passive. The analysis shows how indeterminacy of labour effort is exploited to extract gendered domestic work from carers that encompasses both material and emotional managerial labour. Indeterminacy of carers’ labour within the power dynamics in paid care work reflects and reinforces broader market and social inequalities.