On Monday 24 March 2025, the Department of Gender and Sexualities hosted a public talk titled “Inequality and Discrimination in Swedish Elderly Care Work,” which focused on the challenges faced by foreign-born care workers in Sweden’s elderly care sector. The event, held at LC216, provided valuable insights into the disparities faced by workers from the Global South.
Dr Soheyla Yazdanpanah, Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at Södertörn University, Sweden, explored the occupational inequalities between native-born and foreign-born care workers, particularly those from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She explained how these workers experience significant disadvantages in both job status and pay due to the devaluation of foreign credentials, limited access to workplace social networks, and shorter work experience in the sector.
The talk highlighted how these systemic inequalities perpetuate cycles of discrimination and exclusion within Sweden’s elderly care system, restricting opportunities for career progression and marginalising foreign-born workers economically and socially.
Additionally, Prof. JosAnn Cutajar, Head of the Department of Gender and Sexualities at the University of Malta, presented key findings from the Mobilecare Project. Prof. Cutajar’s findings provided further context to the broader issue of inequality in care work, offering a wider lens on the challenges faced by non-Maltese workers in the sector.
The event sparked important discussions on the structural barriers to equality in the Swedish and Maltese elderly care sector and provided actionable insights into how these challenges can be addressed moving forward.
