Precarious Pathways: Slow and Fragmented Professionalization of Care Work in Romania

Within this framework, Neda Deneva, Mihaela Hărăguș, Ionuț Földes, and Denisa Ursu presented “Precarious Pathways: Slow and Fragmented Professionalization of Care Work in Romania”.

The paper examined the professionalisation of care work in Romanian nursing homes in the context of labour migration and ongoing workforce shortages. While the expansion of residential eldercare has contributed to the formal recognition of care as paid work, the study shows that professionalisation remains uneven and fragmented. Employers frequently recruit workers without formal qualifications, with skills acquired through short training courses or on-the-job experience.

Drawing on qualitative data from care workers and managers in privately operated facilities, the research highlights fluid and overlapping professional roles, where medical, non-medical, and administrative tasks intersect. Emotional labour emerges as a central component of care work, shaping both everyday practices and professional identities. Rather than being driven primarily by institutional reform, professionalisation appears as a gradual and improvised process, sustained largely through workers’ own efforts under conditions of limited resources and staffing shortages.

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