Abstract
“Care under constraint. Migrant worker care for the dependent elderly in a Taiwanese nursing home.” Based on a qualitative survey carried out in a Taiwanese nursing home, the article analyzes the conditions of migrant care-workers. Three scales of analysis are mobilized. On the institutional level, the racialization of the long-term care system in Taiwan deprives migrant care-workers of their freedom, the nursing home becoming a total institution with the workers as its inmates. Second, at the organizational level, care work and the employment of migrant care-workers are embedded within structures of power dominated by the Taiwanese government, recruitment agencies and the total institution. Finally, biographical analysis of a migrant care-worker’s life trajectory suggests that the collective lack of capability to care for oneself on the part of migrant care-workers limits their capability to provide care for others.