Why do Global Care Chains Exist?

Global care chains exist as a direct result of globalization and the increased interdependence of nations across the globe. The women who participate in global care chains often have no other choice to support their families.  The women who comprise global care chains do not always migrate to other countries. Some solely change cities, but this does not relieve them of the hardships associated with migration and the change in the family dynamic that results from it. According to Arlie Hochschild, global care chains are the manifestations of a “private solution to a public problem.” (Hochschild, 36) While the world knows and recognizes the causes and effects of brain drains, globalization and the global care chains that have cropped up, as a result, have led to a new phenomenon known as the “care drain.”

A major cause of the creation of global care chains is the increase in inequality across the globe. As stated by Arlie Hochschild, “In 1960 … the nations of the North were twenty times richer than those of the South. By 1980, that gap had more than doubled, and the North was 46 times richer than the South.” (Hochschild, 35) This increase in economic inequality has led individuals in certain countries to have to migrate to find work elsewhere. Although the term is global care chains, these chains are not always transnational and even when they are, at times not all of the links are. There are many women who have migrated within their own countries to locate more lucrative forms of employment. This is seen in the video listed in the section of this website titled “A Brief Introduction to Global Care Chains,” where the narrator mentions a woman who migrates from a small village in the Philippines to the bigger city of Manila to care for another woman’s children.

Roser, Max. ‘Global Economic Inequality’. Our World in Data (2013): n. pag. Print.