Results found: 2

Search results

Search:
in the keywords: AU PAIR

Sort By:

Limit search:

LATENT ECONOMY OF THE 'AU PAIR' CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMME

100%

Bahna M.

Sociológia (Sociology)

2005

vol. 37

issue 5

449-474

At the beginning of the 1990s the typical participants of the 'au pair' scheme were predominantly middle-class girls from Western Europe. However, this has changed in the last decades and girls from Eastern Europe have prevailed in the au pair stays which continue to be defined as 'cultural exchange'. Thus the meaning of the term 'au pair' has started to change, mainly because of the significantly different life experiences, material and structural backgrounds of au pairs from post-communist countries, such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Hungary, and because of the growing demand for a low-cost solution of child care in the West. The piecemeal transformation of the programme of cultural exchange to a part of the 'child care strategy' in Western European countries gives the au pair scheme an economic dimension hidden behind the official definition of the programme. This study, based on data from Internet agencies that mediate au pair stays, finds statistically significant differences in characteristics of an au pair from Eastern and Western Europe. It also states that there is coherence between the characteristics of au pairs and the economic situations of their countries of origin. The key differences in strategies of the 'Eastern' and 'Western' au pair are presented in the final typology.

THE AU PAIR EMPLOYERS: WHO ARE THEY, WHOM THEY SEARCH FOR AND WHAT DO THEY AWAIT?

75%

Bahna M.

Sociológia (Sociology)

2006

vol. 38

issue 3

245 – 266

The starting point of our work is the often-stated re-emergence of individual paid childcare in western countries. We begin with an overview of the dominant explanations presented in literature available. Using data from online au pair agencies we try to answer the questions presented in the title of this study focusing on the differences between countries in demand and expectations. After presenting the results we try to validate the dominant explanations of the re-emergence of housemaids in western households via a confrontation with our findings. While failing in the attempt to prove that the influence of growing employment of women, the unwillingness of men to involve in doing housework and the shortcoming and dismantling of (subsidized) institutional childcare are in an anticipated correlation with demand for paid childcare we present alternative hypothesis to explain the phenomenon discussed.

Refine search results

2 Sociológia (Sociology)

1 2006

1 2005

2 Bahna M.

Search results

LATENT ECONOMY OF THE 'AU PAIR' CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMME

THE AU PAIR EMPLOYERS: WHO ARE THEY, WHOM THEY SEARCH FOR AND WHAT DO THEY AWAIT?