Changing social organizations of care: a comparison of European policy reforms encouraging paid domestic work

In many European countries different types of policy reforms intending to encourage growth in the domestic service sector
have been introduced. The methods and reforms differ but mainly the reforms intend to stimulate growth of a ‘new’ legal labour
market sector within private households. This potential growth sector in combination with insufficient or declining welfare
states, inclining female labour market participation and ageing populations could be viewed as explanatory factors to the
increased demand for domestic services. A growing amount of those performing paid domestic work in European homes are migrant
women with or without papers. The aim of this article is to create a model that enables comparisons of these reforms, with
a special focus on changing social organizations of care for elders, children and other dependent persons. Included in the
analysis are European countries that have introduced wide domestic service policy reforms as measurement to encourage growth
in the domestic service sector, i.e. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden.