Event: Inequality and discrimination in Swedish elderly care work
Date: Monday 24 March 2025
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Venue: LC216, University of Malta
Why are care workers from the global south disadvantaged? Inequality and discrimination in Swedish elderly care work
ջ️ Speaker:
Dr Soheyla Yazdanpanah
Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
Key Findings from the Mobilecare Project
💡&Բ;Speaker:
💡&Բ;Speaker:
Head of Department of Gender and Sexualities, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta
This Public Talk and Panel Discussion will be held on 24 March 2025 at 14:00-15:00 at LC216, University of Malta.
Please fill in the .
Abstract
Based on earlier research, this presentation explores inequalities in occupational status and wages between native-born and foreign-born employees in Sweden's elderly care sector, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It highlights how workers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America—the "Global South"—face disadvantages in both job status and pay. The presentation argues that these disparities result from a combination of factors, including foreign-born employees' shorter work experience in the sector and the devaluation of foreign credentials, as explained through human capital theory. It also examines how limited access to valuable workplace social networks, as outlined by social capital theory, exacerbates these inequalities. Finally, the presentation discusses how workplace discrimination reinforces exclusion from influential social networks, perpetuating the cycle of inequality.
Speaker Biography
Soheyla Yazdanpanah holds a PhD in Economic History from Stockholm University and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the Department of Gender Studies, School of Culture and Learning at Södertörn University, Sweden.
Her research has focused on the processes that generate (in)equality in livelihood, employment, working life, and migration, with a particular focus on women’s life conditions and experiences, analyzed through an intersectional feminist framework that emphasizes the interplay of class and race. Eva has extensive teaching experience across a broad range of disciplines, including International Relations, Economic History, Sociology, and Organization Theory, with a primary focus on Gender Studies.
