ABSTRACT

This chapter examines a recent change in the regulation of au pairing in the United Kingdom (UK), the abolition of the au pair visa in 2008, and seeks to understand it as part of a historical continuity in attitudes towards who is and who is not appropriate to carry out domestic work in private homes. In 2004, when the Accession Eight (A8) countries of Eastern Europe joined the EU, only three countries from the existing European Union (EU) granted A8 nationals immediate free access to their labor markets: Ireland, Sweden and the UK. As Bridget Anderson argues, recent debates around EU migrants have racialized their whiteness. In November 2008 the UK introduced a new immigration system, the Points Based Immigration Scheme (PBS), which replaced existing immigration routes including the au pair visa. The UK developed the 'Baltic Cygnet' scheme to recruit women from the displaced persons camps to work in hospitals and private homes.