Active Citizenship, Globalized Gender Relations and Human Rights

Abstract

This paper discusses globalized gender relations and the meaning of citizenship and human rights in Europe. Under the promise of efficiency, a restructuring of European welfare states has taken place which concerns many aspects of life and has strong effects on social rights, especially concerning the cutting back of public care services. At the same time, gender relations have changed in the sense that women, traditionally the main care providers for their relatives, increasingly take part in the labor market. In this context, the question about who will care for children and the elderly becomes all the more important. To look at migration in this context is interesting because it is mostly female migrants as care providers, in precarious working conditions from all over the world, who fill the gap. These migrants seem to embody globalized gender relations, this is my thesis. Similar to care providers in earlier times, they are barely mentioned, rarely have access to social benefits and are seldom granted rights as full citizens. These "cosmobile" care providers challenge traditional concepts of citizenship, this is my second thesis, on an epistemic, normative, and empirical level in far-reaching ways.