'Care Bonds in Pandemic Times', lecture at the 16th World SIEF Congress

Our colleague Petra Ezzeddine took part in the 16th World SIEF (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) Congress with the title 'Living Uncertainity' in Brno, Czech Republic, which took place from 7-10 June 2023 and held a lecture about 'Care Bonds in Pandemic Times'.

In her lecture Petra Ezzeddine explained, that in Central Europe, the rapid unfolding of state-based measures to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, implemented in March and April 2020, created many tensions and disparities in the cross-border care market that were politically visible. The closing of borders, and the consequent bio-political regime within the EU, created difficulties for migrant care workers and the states that rely on their work to provide senior care. In her lecture she focused on the lived experiences of Czech care workers who worked in live-in settings in Germany during the Covid19 pandemic, based on ethnographic and nethnographic research. She discussed how Czech care workers coped with the introduction of new biopolitical measures at the borders and how the pandemic regulations (including testing and vaccination policy) affected their cross-border mobility, which before this had allowed them to coordinate care work in Germany with personal and family life in the Czech Republic. She also discussed the role of social media platforms, which played a crucial role in the virtual support and dissemination of pandemic information, knowledge and individual and collective resistance related to specifics of the mobility of senior care in times of risk.

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