Introduction

Demographic and social transformation in the United Kingdom (UK) in the last decade has lead to what many have described as a ‘care crisis’ (Age UK 2012; MacDonald and Cooper 2007). The decline of the nuclear family and the associated traditional gender roles and women's increased participation in the labour market (albeit often in the low-paying sectors) are often blamed (Yeates 2009). As well as the shift of caring from the private sphere of the family to care facilities and formal services, the UK has also experienced a growing demand for care services through a generally ageing population. The increasing demand for paid care workers coupled with the care work's status as dirty, feminised and low paying (Bubeck 2002; Hartmann 1979; Twigg 2000) has led to immigration increasingly being used to fulfil labour shortages (McGregor 2007; Moriarty 2010).

This chapter focuses on the experience of migrant care workers working in an elderly residential care home in the UK. The focus is on the how the state, through various immigration policies, is crucial in influencing the conditions of their employment and generally their life opportunities (Anderson 2010; Kemp 2004; Piore 1983), rather than focusing on the discrimination and racism experienced from colleagues and service users in the course of their employment (Aronson and Neysmith 1996; Gunaratnum and Lewis 2010; Neysmith and Aronson 1997). It contributes to wider debates regarding the role of the state in determining rights for migrant workers and theoretically understands the state as an institutional structure imperative in the continuation of racism (Hayter 2004; Miles 1982; Shelley 2007).