Obligations, Ambitions, Calculations: Migrant Care Workers' Negotiation of Work, Career, and Family Responsibilities

This article highlights the need in migrant research for a holistic approach that addresses migrants' reconciliation of work and care in the context of their evolving employment, career, and family circumstances. With a focus on these three central spheres of migrants' lives, in an Irish context, it demonstrates the complexities of female migrant care workers' transnational obligations, which together with immigration status and limited opportunities in their home and host countries serve to curtail career aspirations. The article considers how future ambitions are dependent on changing family circumstances and employment prospects in the "receiving" or "sending" country and argues that the interconnectedness of these circumstances points to the need for greater co-ordination of migration, labor market, and care policies.