300638 (Health) Care relations and mobility (S) (WiSe 2020/2021)

(Health) care relations and mobility
The current worldwide pandemic response exacerbates demands on care provision, with care workers being positioned in a strange context of life and work. The coronavirus creates new dimensions of precariousness especially when we think about complicated care relationships that connect individuals and communities across borders. Thinking of transnational families/households, what does it mean to care when family members living across national borders are all exposed to the virus? Thinking of migrant care workers, such as nurses and domestic workers, how do they deal with the tension between their risk of exposure to coronavirus, their risk of being laid off and their responsibility for supporting families in their home country? How can migrant workers continue their support if they themselves are in need of care as well? What does COVID-19 tell us about care, health care, care work and how they are arranged across borders?

Thus, the course looks critically at discussions on the relationship among care, health care, and COVID-19 through the lens of critical migration scholarship. It will require us to rethink debates on global care chains, and the related global nursing chains and reproductive work.