What is it about?
The article demonstrates how the national Family Law Act constitutes a compulsory requirement of family solidarity in society. The compulsory family solidarity norm influences local-level policymaking and inhibits the development of formal care services for older people. Informal carers’ choices between work and care are shaped by their personal filial norms, familialistic policymaking, and pressure exerted by older people.
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Why is it important?
Estonians are obliged by law to provide maintenance for family members who are unable to cope by themselves. As a result, 80% of fragile older people receive informal care. Whether this is because the carers themselves feel solidarity and choose informal caring or because they lack alternatives is the question.
Perspectives
The informal carers are under triple pressure in Estonia: the legally supported familialistic policy; the older generation’s own strong filial norms; and the informal carers’ personal position where they have internalised the compulsory family solidarity norm that is empowered also by strong subjective filial norms. The subject needs further discussion as the legal obligation to provide care may actually enforce compulsory family solidarity and leave the informal carers in a no-choice situation between care and work.
Dagmar Kutsar
Tartu Ulikool
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Compulsory intergenerational family solidarity shaping choices between work and care: Perceptions of informal female carers and local policymakers in Estonia, International Journal of Social Welfare, April 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ijsw.12272.
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