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When Work Doesn’t Pay: Outcomes of a Deregulated Childcare Market and Au Pair Policy Vacuum in the UK

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Au Pairs’ Lives in Global Context

Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series ((MDC))

Abstract

Au pairs are an important form of relatively affordable childcare and domestic labour for households across the UK. They allow two-parent and single-parent families to combine paid work outside the home with the demands of home and children, as well as allowing parents and carers to enjoy leisure activities when they might otherwise have been cleaning, shopping, cooking or caring for infants and children. However, the value of the many hours a week of childcare and domes- tic work performed by au pairs is obscured by the social construction of au pairing as something other than ‘work’. Au pairing is instead constructed as a ‘cultural exchange’, an extended holiday, a ‘win-win’ situation or a ‘time-out’ from the normal life of the au pair.

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Authors
  1. Nicole Busch
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Birkbeck, University of London, UK

    Rosie Cox (Reader in Geography) (Reader in Geography)

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© 2015 Nicole Busch

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Busch, N. (2015). When Work Doesn’t Pay: Outcomes of a Deregulated Childcare Market and Au Pair Policy Vacuum in the UK. In: Cox, R. (eds) Au Pairs’ Lives in Global Context. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137377487_4

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