Transnational Care Workers, State Policies and Gender Dynamics in Ageing Societies: A Comparative Study of Singapore and Japan

Members:

• Prof Brenda Yeoh (Geography)
• A/P Shirlena Huang (Geography)
• Dr. Mika Toyota (Sociology)
  

About:
This project aims to investigate the structural conditions, social dynamics and policy implications of “care work” in service of the elderly in two rapidly ageing societies in Asia – Singapore and Japan.

Both Singapore and Japan are experiencing similar demographic trends revolving around very low fertility and high rates of delayed/non-marriage.  They are moving from being “ageing” to “aged” societies at a speed that is not only the most rapid rate in the world, but also accelerating.  While Japan is estimated to have made the transition from 10% of the population over 65 years to 20% in 21 years (from 1985 to 2006), Singapore is expected to make the same transition in only 13 years (from 2010 to 2023). In this context, the question of care work in relation to the elderly population is an extremely pertinent one in both countries.

Concomitant with the increased rate of ageing, the traditional practice of informal care of the elderly provided by the family members at home is also changing in both societies. This raises an important question of who is (and will be) actually looking after elderly people in Japan and in Singapore. As both countries are already facing a shortage of care workers, the significance of this question will intensify in the future.

In order to respond to the above demographic and social changes, the state is under increasing pressure to adjust its social welfare policies. While Singapore has proactively taken on the strategy of employing foreign nurses and care givers in institutional settings as well as allowed the employment of foreign domestic workers in Singapore homes (for housework, child care as well as elderly care), Japan, in contrast, has been hitherto rather cautious in admitting foreign care workers and domestic workers.

This contrast of state policies makes for an interesting comparison. What accounts for the different approaches between the two states in tackling similar “social service crises”? What are the responses of different stakeholders (government officials, nursing associations, care industries etc.)? The comparative analysis between Singapore and Japan will deepen our understanding of the nature of care work in Asia.

The focus of the project is on care workers who provide services to the elderly in private and public institutions. First, the project analyses the structural position of these care workers within the broader hierarchy of various types of reproductive labour (i.e. domestic work, child care, elderly care, nursing). Second, it investigates the increasingly complex stratification of care work along ethnic and nationality lines as reproductive labour becomes increasingly commodified and transnationalised in the global labour market. Third, it draws on both institutional theory and ethnographic work to explore the ways in which certain skills are defined and the structure of professions socially constructed. In this context, it should be noted that the recognition of care workers’ skills is heavily regulated by the state as the provision of social services is often regarded a matter of state responsibility. The state thus plays a crucial role in regulating and recognizing such qualifications. Fourth, the project goes beyond examining the role of the state in putting regulations in place to investigate the gender ideologies underlying state policy and welfare systems. In short, it explores the way gender ideologies reinforce, resist or inflect the social construction of roles and identity within the regulatory framework of care work. The conditions shaping the recognition of “skill” and the structure of the “care” profession are clearly entangled with issues of status, gender and family values.