Migrants in Media Representations of Elder Care: Ambivalent Sentiments

Abstract

International migration and population aging have brought renewed attention to the ethics of care debate and the notion of caring democracy. This discussion problematizes the ways in which different statuses (based on gender, class and/or ethnicity) give people ‘passes’ out of caring responsibilities. This chapter uses this discussion as a backdrop while shedding light on the ways in which migrant status and culture are depicted in Swedish daily newspaper reporting on elder care. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of all articles published between 1995 and 2017 (n = 370) in two national newspapers, this chapter shows the varying ways in which migration and culture are deployed in these media representations, and how care work is represented as a much needed but highly under-valued activity. Our analyses show that while older migrants are depicted as a burden to the elder care sector, migrant care workers are described as the solution par excellence to the staff crisis that this sector is experiencing, and are, as such, depicted as an asset. By bringing attention to these opposing representations, this chapter questions whether Sweden can be regarded as a caring democracy.