Between Privileged and Oppressed? Immigrant Labor Trajectories in Norwegian Long-Term Care

Abstract

An increase in older people coupled with growing life expectancy has created a higher demand for long-term care (LTC) services in the global North. Recruitment of staff with an immigrant background has been a solution to meet this demographic challenge. Research shows that linguistic barriers and cultural differences can influence immigrant carers’ abilities to offer adequate care, while less is known about workplace training and intra-collegial support. This article explores systems and practices of training offered to new employees with immigrant backgrounds, and how the qualification process unfolds in daily work in nursing homes in Norway through an intersectional perspective focusing on the interlocking of gender, class and migrancy. The article shows that organizational conditions together with incomplete training combined with attitudes of ‘willful ignorance’ maintain privilege and oppression in these workplaces. The increased immigrant participation and their labor trajectories indicate the emergence of a new immigrant niche in the lower tiers of the LTC sector. The article contributes to the literature of migration, gender, healthcare services and labor by exploring immigrants’ situated labor experiences within changing institutional conditions in LTC.