Across European societies there is an increasing number of precarious workers. In this study we focus on migrant care/domestic workers, an archetypical case to study the precariat in a sector characterized by informality, lack of access to employment rights and protections and where workers may face exploitation and abuse. We compare migrant care workers in two institutional contexts, Spain and Sweden, representing different welfare/care and migration regimes. Analyzing the effects of precarious work within the framework of capabilities, we consider whether there are similarities and differences in our two cases regarding wellbeing and quality of life of migrants working in the sector and their scope of alternatives for making change. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews of migrants working in the care/domestic sector conducted in Madrid, Barcelona and Stockholm. We find less of a divergence than one would have expected, given our cases with different regimes and employment practices, though in Spain migrant care/domestic workers fare worse, which partly can be attributed to the recession.

Migrant workers Precariousness Welfare regimes Care/domestic workers

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