“Foreigners, non-nationals, immigrants”: precarious citizenship, precarious labour(s) in Oona Frawley’s Flight (2014)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ireland has the fastest ageing population in Europe, creating significant challenges for health and caring services in the state. Ireland depends on migrant workers, documented and undocumented to meet this growing need. Oona Frawley’s 2014 novel Flight tells the story of one of these workers. In the novel, Sandrine, from Zimbabwe, gets a job as a live-in carer for the ageing Clare and Tom, working 24/7 with just one afternoon off. Set just before the 2004 Citizenship Referendum, the story is complicated by Sandrine’s pregnancy. This article details Sandrine’s precarious labour and citizenship, impacted by the biopolitical legislation. It also foregrounds the vulnerability of the ageing population in Ireland through reliance on unregulated care solutions. Flight represents how a range of vulnerable groups in Irish society are impacted by a precarious and invisible labour market that both fails to address the needs of the worker and the ageing population.