The Netherlands: State and Senior Care

25.04.2026

Untangling the intricacies of the Dutch elderly care system we discuss how the state shapes, regulates and monitors elderly care provisions in the Netherlands. Which forms of elderly care fall out of the state’s regulatory gaze? What is the fate of migrant care work in the state’s monitoring scheme? Who are the winners and the losers of this close regulation? 

GUESTS of the episode:

Franca van Hooren
Franca van Hooren
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam in the Department of Political Science specialized in the politics of domestic and care work. I am particularly interested in political decision-making relating to childcare, elderly care and domestic work, the representation of precarious workers in such decision making, and the role of migrant workers as care providers. I earned my PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2011) with a dissertation on the politics and practices of migrant care work in different European welfare regimes and worked at the University of Bremen, Germany, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam before starting my current position at the University of Amsterdam.
Siënna Hernandez
Siënna Hernandez
I am currently a social science research master’s student at the University of Amsterdam and work as research intern in the Amsterdam team. I completed my undergraduate degree in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Here I got interested in the social sciences in general, and social research in particular. This inspired me to do a postgraduate degree in Social Anthropology, still in Edinburgh. During this time I focused mainly on medical anthropology and anthropology of the body.

Sources:

  • Photo Credit: Viktor Nemeth
  • Aulenbacher, B., Leiblfinger, M., & Prieler, V. (2021). The promises of 24-hour care: Ambivalent outcomes in the context of transnational care arrangements. Journal of European Social Policy, 31(3), 322–336. 
  • Daly, M., et al. (2025). Counting care: The importance of data in care systems.
  • Da Roit, B., & Van Bochove, M. (2017). Migrant care work and care, migration and employment regimes: A fuzzy-set analysis. Journal of European Social Policy, 27(1), 28–41. 
  • Farris, S. R., & Marchetti, S. (2017). From the commodification to the corporatization of care: European perspectives and debates. Social Politics, 24(2), 109–131. 
  • Fudge, J., & Hobden, C. (2018). Conceptualising the role of intermediaries in formal and informal labour markets. International Labour Review, 157(1), 1–23. 
Dr. Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M.
Campus Westend - PEG
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6
60629 Frankfurt am Main
HPF 55
+49 6978936588 e.pm@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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