Responsible for the project: Dr. Monique Ritter and Prof. Dr. Mandy Schulze
Project team members: Rayan Salah, Lena Bach, Frieda Fuchs, Annabell Szameit, Lea Weber
Project email: projekt-fum(at)hszg.de
Duration: 06/2023 - 12/26
The shortage of skilled workers in small and micro-enterprises in Saxony's elderly care sector is virulent (see SMWA 2020). This development is essentially the result of demographic change and precarious working conditions. At the same time, the national economic discourse on the shortage of skilled workers and the increase and economic policy promotion of transnational mobility, for example through the recruitment of skilled and unskilled workers in Central and Eastern European countries, are protecting the professional integration of migrants and refugees into the care sector.
Initial studies by Dr. Monique Ritter (forthcoming, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020b, 2020a) in the context of outpatient care for the elderly in the city of Dresden, which this project builds on, point to a disparate development. There is a conspicuous dominance of problematization and discrimination practices - not exclusively but extremely dominant towards (refugees) people from the so-called Global South/people who are read as Black and Muslim - which give preference to non-cooperation on the part of the established nursing staff (the white majority population) and which can be assessed as racist. As a result, these practices lead to more potential carers not considering the field of elderly care for their professional participation or leaving it again - a development that leads and will continue to lead to particularly precarious needs in the provision of services of general interest in rural areas (SLFS 2019).
Against this background, the project aims to conduct an in-depth investigation of practices of exclusion and possible paths to inclusion in professional cooperation with migrants and refugees in small and micro outpatient care companies in the district of Görlitz. The analysis focuses on the rural area of the district of Görlitz, which is characterized by structural change; a region in which - as a result of its proximity to the Polish and Czech borders - increased cooperation with people from Central and Eastern European countries can be expected. In terms of perspective, the project opens up the possibility of comparing the formerly metropolitan area of Dresden with the results from the much more peripheral regions of the district of Görlitz and drawing new conclusions for regional development.
During the project period, the initial aim is to outline the situation with regard to diverse cooperation in outpatient care in the district of Görlitz. The aim is to establish sustainable contact with selected care facilities that are interested in longer-term research-based and application-oriented cooperation such as a participatory process of organizational development critical of racism and thus also in conditions of 'good work' (e.g. with regard to work intensification, stress experience, break regulations and induction practices).
The project is to be understood as initial research for the development of further applications for third-party funding.
Ritter, Monique (forthcoming, 01/2024). "Und dann sie zittert schon" - (Hyper-)sexualization as an experience of racism among Black geriatric nurses. In: Lisa Carstensen/Peter Birke/Nikolai Huke (eds.): Migration and Work. Conflicts in the field of tension between racism, class and gender relations. Beltz Juventa.
Ritter, Monique/Jänsch, Marlene (forthcoming, 12/2023). #Transcategorial: Critique of Racism (in) Social Work with Older People in Neighborhoods - An Appeal from and to Practice. In: Boris Friele et al. (eds.): Social Work and Social Transformation between Exclusion and Inclusion: Analyses and Perspectives. Springer VS.
Ritter, Monique (forthcoming, 11/2023). Accentuations of racism-critical perspectives for social work (not only) in the context of 'East Germany' - An insight into another history. In: Mandy Schulze/Peter-Georg Albrecht/Julia Hille (eds.): Genese Ost: Transformations der Sozialen Arbeit. Barbara Budrich.
Ritter, Monique (2023). Nursing Shortage and Migration: Insights into the Current Situation in the State of Saxony, Germany. In: Tudásmenedzsment - Journal of the University of Pécs.
Ritter, Monique (2022). Criticism of racism as a mission of social (geriatric) work? On the field of action of tomorrow's care. In: DZI - Journal for Social and Social-Related Fields 7, 242-249. DOI: 10.5771/0490-1606-2022-7-24
Ritter, Monique (2021). Challenging the Problematization of Labour Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees in East Germany: New Perspectives and Mandates for Social Work. In: The Journal Sociální práce / Sociálna práca / Czech and Slovak Social Work, 1, 105-109.
Ritter, Monique (2020b). "So, every day is something!" - Or the camouflaged ubiquity of racist exclusionary practices in nursing training. In: Migration and Social Work, 3, 251-259. DOI: 10.3262/MIG2003251
Ritter, Monique (2020a). Migrants - the care workers of tomorrow? An investigation using the example of home care in East Saxony. In: Blätter der Wohlfahrtspflege, 167 (1), 7-9. DOI: 10.5771/0340-8574-2020-1-7
SMWA - State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport (2020). Innovation strategy of the Free State of Saxony (update). Dresden. Available at: https://publikationen.sachsen.de/bdb/artikel/35302
SLFS - State Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony (2019). Statistically speaking. Care in Saxony - 2019 edition. Kamenz: Statistical State Office of the Free State of Saxony. Available at: https://www.statistik.sachsen.de/download/statistisch-betrachtet/broschur_statistik-sachsen_statistisch-betrachtet_pflege.pdf
