Biographical Agency of Male Au Pair Migration to Germany

Abstract

Au pair mobility has long been dominated by females. In recent years, young men have also begun to travel abroad as au pairs, but little is known about their motives and perspectives on this gender atypical migration pathway and occupation. Based on Schütze’s concept of biographical patterns, dynamics, and change processes this article shows how young men use the au pair stay as a biographical moratorium of emerging adulthood. By transcending expectation patterns of masculinity in their home and receiving context, they initiate a biographical turning process which allows them to escape a life course trajectory in their home country that is determined by high unemployment and access highly skilled jobs in Germany. In the au pair families, they are expected to perform “caring masculinity” for male children to substitute the missing participation of fathers. Hence, the commodification of care work does not only impl