Unsettled Labors: Migrant Care Work in Palestine/Israel

Rachel H. Brown's Unsettled Labors explores the overlooked labor of migrant workers in Israel's eldercare industry, highlighting the reproduction of settler colonialism through live-in eldercare. She draws from interviews, public statements, court documents, and fieldwork to uncover the contradictory nature of elder care work and raise questions of labor, social reproduction, displacement, and citizenship.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 02 August 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press

Rachel H. Brown's book Unsettled Labors delves into the often overlooked labor of migrant workers in Israel's eldercare industry. She argues that live-in eldercare in Palestine/Israel, primarily carried out by migrant workers, is a crucial site where settler colonialism is perpetuated culturally, economically, and biologically. Brown contextualizes Israeli labor markets within a history of imperialism and the dispossession of Palestinian land, highlighting the complex web of Israeli laws, policies, and social discourses that shape migrant eldercare. Through interviews with caretakers, public statements, court documents, and first-hand fieldwork, Brown uncovers the inherent contradictions of elder care work, where the presence of South and Southeast Asian workers in the home challenges the notion of the Israeli home as exclusively Jewish. By examining the comparative racialization of migrant workers, Palestinians, asylum seekers, and Mizrahi and Ashkenazi settlers, Brown raises important questions about labor, social reproduction, displacement, and citizenship through the stories of collective care provided by migrant workers in a settler colonial state.

Weight: 478g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478030591