Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the lived experiences of Czech care workers who worked in Germany during the Covid19 pandemic. Following Diddier Fassin´s concept of ‘moral economies,’ the paper analyses the moral status and everyday economies related to the bio-political regime of cross-border care migration.

Paper long abstract:

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. The paper focuses 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.

Following Diddier Fassin´s concept of ‘moral economies,’ the paper analyses the moral status of decisions made concerning the pandemic measures and the related circulation of values, sentiments, and emotions. It also explores ‘everyday economies’ manifested through ordinary practices and the shared experiences of care workers with new virus prevention and norms.

The paper discusses 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. It also discusses 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.