----7. Worksheet. Migrant aged-care work

migrant workers, serving as the fictive kin of Taiwanese elders, may claim the superiority of their home culture in terms of family ties and elder care arrangement. They were critical about the outsourcing of geriatric care in Taiwan: “I will not leave my parents to a stranger."       (Lan 265)

Introduction: Rethinking Care Across Cultures

Why does the migrant caregiver say, “I will not leave my parents to a stranger"? Who takes care of the elderly—and how—is not the same everywhere. In this worksheet, we explore the care landscape across East and Southeast Asia, with comparisons to Australia. As you’ll see, questions of care are never just practical—they’re also deeply tied to ideas about family, duty, gender, and money.

In this worksheet, you learn about this by analysing care giving in terms of:

1. regional differences in economy and demography, 
2. kinship
3.  (gemeinschaft (community) & gesellschaft (society).
4. Essentialism & stereotypes
5. Reciprocity & Exchange 

You’ll be invited to question your own assumptions and reflect on how care is structured in your own society, family, or future profession.

Economy and Demography

 East vs Southeast Asia

Look at this map of Asia. 

➤  Australia's missing! Where should it be?

➤  Can you point to Japan and Taiwan? Which region are these countries categorised in?

,➤ Can you point to the Philippines and Indonesia? Which region are these countries categorised in?

The economies of East Asia, particularly Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China are more 'developed' than those of Southeast Asia.

➤  Which region is more rapidly ageing? East Asia or Southeast Asia

Kinship in care

We have already covered the topic of kinship in TLC. Indonesians and Filipinas working in Taiwan felt that family should take care of elders:

➤ What does this tell us about kinship in caregiving?

Gemeinschaft vs Gesellschaft in Care

Broadly speaking, how is elder care in Southeast Asia different from East Asia? Tönnies argued that 2 kinds of social order characterize human life::

• Gesselschaft (society). This is associated with written laws, the state, civil society, nation, and capitalism.  An example of gemeinschaft would be the social order in London or Tokyo in 2025.

Tonnies sculpture

•  Gemeinschaft (community). This social order is associated with traditions, spoken mores, kinship, locality, reciprocity. An example of gemeinschaft would be the social order in a village in England or Japan in 1500.

    

➤ Use the table below to sort each term into the appropriate category. 

Feature	Gemeinschaft	Gesellschaft
Reciprocity
Legal contract
Paid work
Bureaucracy
Kinship
Market-based relationship

➤ According to the gemeinschaft/gesselshcaft distinction, what would be the form of aged care an Indonesian undertakes:

• for her employer in a home in Tawian?
• for her parents in her village in Indonesia or the Philippines?

➤ The gemeinschaft idea implies that they Filipinos and Indonesia don't care for their elder just because they are altruistic and good people. Instead, the idea is that they are forced to, but not by paid work or legal contract. So what is it, according to the gemeinschaft concept, that compels these people to look after the elderly.

➤ How is aged care organised in Australia? Where would you place it on the Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft spectrum?  Does class, ethnicity, and gender play a role here? Can you think of examples where these two logics overlap??

Essentialism & Stereotypes in Care

Essentialism is the belief that people have fixed characteristics based on their race, gender, nationality, or culture — as if those traits were “natural” rather than shaped by history, politics, or training. Put simply it's when you hold a stereotype that people are essentially like this or that.

Lan writes: 

My informants described the personality of their Japanese coworkers as “shy, not warm,” “no answer, no eye contact, no smile” and “not so open-minded toward foreigners.” ... Utami said:

We work with humans. So I think touching and eye contact are really important. They [Japanese elderly patients] like Indonesian and Filipino care workers because we are more emotional and cheerful, not like Japanese workers. They are like robots. . . we make [elderly patients feel] safe and comfortable even we cannot speak Japanese fluently. Smile is [the] best language. And I see my patients like my family.

Utami characterized her superior job performance with the bodily performance of affective labor—smile, physical contact, and emotional expression...

The Japanese owner of an elderly nursing home...used a similar tone to describe how Southeast Asian women are more inclined to care work:

The Filipinos I have met are really good at communication. If you want me to give you my opinions of the Japanese now they are like robots. This is why they [the Filipinas] are so good at caring . . . they look after other families' elderly [patients] as they would look after their own . . . we don't want to take a policy whereby we demand care workers who are “perfect” Japanese speakers, but speakers who can care. 

➤ Can we analyse these Utami's opinions as essentialism by Southeast Asians of East Asians?

➤ Can we analyse the Japanese owner's opinion as essentialism by East Asians of Southeast Asians?

Producing racialised and feminised workers

The above represents an example of how intimate labour becomes racialised and feminised: care work is associated with Southeast Asian women, and those women are imagined to be naturally suited to such work — even though this “naturalness” is socially produced.

➤  How do Taiwanese and Japanese systems — including training programs, media representations, and employer expectations — produce an image of the “ideal” Southeast Asian caregiver? 

Essentialism by Australians

Think about how people in Australia might talk about or imagine Asian cultures. I sometimes catch myself making these assumptions:

• “Asian families are closer”
• “Asians are good at looking after the elderly”
• “Asian women are so respectful and obedient”

These are essentialist ideas too — even if they sound positive. They reduce complex people to flat stereotypes.

➤ Have you ever held (or heard) essentialist ideas about Asian people? Where do you think these ideas come from? Why is it important to question them? 

Conclusion: The Politics of Care

As we’ve seen, aged care is not just about who does the work—it’s about who is imagined to be naturally suited to it. From Japan to Taiwan to Australia, migrant women from Southeast Asia are often seen as ideal caregivers: warm, obedient, and self-sacrificing. But these ideas aren’t facts of nature—they’re essentialist stereotypes, produced through migration systems, media, training, and everyday talk.

At the same time, care is not always given freely by family. It can be paid for—and still be deeply intimate. We’ve seen that money doesn’t always ruin relationships; sometimes, it creates new ones. Love, obligation, duty, and affection move in unexpected ways.

As you move forward—whether as an anthropologist, health worker, or simply a person with aging family—keep asking: Whose care counts? Who gives it? Who gets it? And what assumptions shape the answers?

Further Research

Read my short blog post on community Summarise one key insight and explain how it might apply to aged care arrangements in your own culture or family. 

Analyse the carescae of Asian migrant aged care workers in Australia, recalling that, as Winarnita shows:

• 35% of aged care workers are migrants
• of that 35%, 80% are Asians

Distinguish the carescapes / care-landscapes for the Asian female migrant care worker employed in:

• Taiwan
• Japan
• Australia

Look into the idea of strategic essentialism. This happens when people play along with stereotypes for strategic regions. If for example an Indonesian gets a job as a carer by playing up to the stereotype of caring Indonesian women, we could analyse this as strategic essentialism.