ABSTRACT
In 1995–1996, long-term care insurance (LTCI) was introduced in Germany, which provides universal but capped benefits based on social rights in a situation of care dependency. The German survey was distributed to a random sample of 1,517 care workers in home-based and residential care provision in the entire country. In the empirical part, the basic institutional and cultural dimensions of LTCI in Germany are outlined before care arrangements and their mix of different types of paid and informal family care work. The expansion and restructuring of the professional care system are reflected in the changing situation of the care workforce. This chapter focuses on social construction of care work inside and outside the professional care system, and the impact on the situation of care workers dependent on their intersected socio-economic and migration status. It explores the assumption that the development is strongly affected by social policies at the macro level, and further mediated by employment, professionalization and migration policies.
