■ This contribution tries to name key elements for a research agenda to study the increasing importance of the transnational migration for the formation of the social caring processes in the developed part of the world. First, the formal employment of people with migrant background in the German system for the delivery of care is regarded. Right now, there are no reliable data available which could give information about the degree of formal participation of migrants in the health and social care sector. It is agreed that in the future the service branch holds an increasing potential for employing people with migrant background. However, up to now, an initiative to qualify these younger migrant cohorts intensively is needed in order to compensate their educational and social disadvantages. The second part concentrates on the impact and development of informal work structures in care seen as irregular work participation in private households by migrants who are mostly from east-European countries. In a comparison between Germany, Austria and Italy, specific patterns of state policies toward this irregular work are analyzed; the phenomenon of a modern 'care drain' is analyzed and discussed in respect of the welfare state policies as well as of the potentials of action on the part of both migrants and family households. © Steinkopff 2005.

Welfare state types Care drain Irregular work in care care regimes

education Germany household health care policy Europe human social aspect Austria social care groups by age migrant worker family workload Article health care Personnel Selection migration Emigration and Immigration Italy Delivery of Health Care employment elderly care