Skip to main content

HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Aging Psychiatry
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1453948
This article is part of the Research Topic Ethical Conflicts Regarding the Care of Older Adults with Dementia View all 8 articles

A conceptual framework for the ethical analysis of moral conflicts in migrant live-in care

Provisionally accepted
Milena von Kutzleben Milena von Kutzleben 1*Merle Weßel Merle Weßel 2Natalie Ulitsa Natalie Ulitsa 3Anna-Eva Nebowsky Anna-Eva Nebowsky 1Liat Ayalon Liat Ayalon 3Mark Schweda Mark Schweda 1
  • 1 University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • 2 City of Hannover, Hannover, Germany
  • 3 Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv District, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In many industrialized countries, hiring a migrant live-in carer represents a promising solution to support families caring for an older person at home and to avoid institutionalization. Migrant live-in carers live in the household of the person in need of care and provide extensive care and social support. They usually come from geopraphic areas such as Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. Due to often unclear legal regulations regarding labor and migration status, as well as contradicting expectations and entangled vulnerabilities within the triad of the person in need of care, the live-in carer, and the family, these live-in care arrangements are prone to a variety of moral conflicts that require ethical analysis. This article proposes a conceptual ethical framework for analyzing moral conflicts within live-in care arrangements. By recognizing and addressing these conflicts within the multi-level ethical framework, the ground for a triadic perspective is laid and the ethical discussion around live-in care for older people can be put on an empirical basis. This can help to inform counselling and support for these arrangements, as well as policy advice for ethical solutions and improved caregiving practices.

    Keywords: moral conflicts, Ethical Analysis, Care ethics, norms & moral standards, Values, Family caregiving, live-in care, Dementia

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 18 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 von Kutzleben, Weßel, Ulitsa, Nebowsky, Ayalon and Schweda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Milena von Kutzleben, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.