2025/02/23 by Anna Rosińska · 1 voice
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Work-Family Balance Challenges
paper · doi:10.1080/1070289x.2025.2460876
In paid care work, the phrase ‘one of the family’ is ubiquitous when describing the relationships between workers and employers or care receivers. Initially identified in studies of migrant domestic workers, it has primarily been analysed as an exploitative employer strategy that elicits disproportionate labour input in exchange for symbolic inclusion in the family group. Drawing from care work research in home and institutional settings in Italy, Poland, and the US from 2004–2022, this article challenges the mainstream view of ‘one of the family’. It underscores the variety and complexity of the family analogy, particularly from the workers’ standpoint, and explores its nuanced expressions that go beyond domestic settings and the migrant labour context. I call for a re-evaluation of the established understanding of ‘one of the family’ and introduce a new classification of the family frame, dividing it into four main types, differentiated by motivation (instrumental or intrinsic) and initiator (employer or worker), with subtypes delineated for the status motivations.