Care Systems Cannot Rely on Migrant Care Alone – and They Must Do Better
Across Europe, care systems are under growing pressure. Population ageing, staff shortages and insufficient investment in long-term care mean that families are increasingly left to fill the gaps. As highlighted in a recent opinion piece by Henk Nies in Het Financieele Dagblad, many countries already depend heavily on migrant care to keep care systems functioning.
From live-in care arrangements to home-based support, migrant care workers play a crucial role in supporting people in need of care and the informal carers who look after them. In some countries, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are privately employed in households, often compensating for the lack of accessible, affordable formal services.
Yet this growing reliance comes at a high cost. Migrant care workers frequently face precarious working conditions, limited social protection, isolation and long periods away from their own families. Many are overqualified for the tasks they perform, while their countries of origin experience a parallel “care drain”. For informal carers, employing migrant care can mean navigating complex legal, financial and ethical challenges, often with little guidance or support.
These concerns are at the heart of Eurocarers’ Position Paper on Migrant Care, published as part of the European Carers Day campaign “Invisible No More: Let’s See & Value Migrant Care”. Drawing on carers’ lived experience and research evidence, the paper warns against treating migrant care as a quick fix to systemic care shortages. Instead, it calls for integrated, rights-based solutions that protect workers, support families and ensure quality care.
Eurocarers urges policymakers to invest in accessible, affordable and high-quality long-term care services, to ensure legal security and decent working conditions for migrant care workers, and to provide clear guidance and support to informal carers who rely on migrant care. Migrant care must be visible, valued and properly regulated—as part of a broader care strategy, not a substitute for it.
Read the full article Onze gezondheidszorg kan niet zonder zorgmigrant (in Dutch)
Read the full Eurocarers Position Paper on Migrant Care
(ILLUSTRATIE: HEIN DE KORT VOOR HET FINANCIEELE DAGBLAD)
