'OLTRE IL BADANTATO?' THE DYNAMIC EVOLUTION OF THE ITALIAN LONG-TERM CARE REGIME: AN AGENCY BASED APPROACH.

Is there identifiable patterns of occupational upgrading in the Italian care labour market? what are the connections between the largely informal and unskilled household care jobs and skilled social care occupations in professional care services? These are some of the key research questions that this thesis aims to tackle, mainly drawing on biographical interviews with a small sample of migrant care workers in the metropolitan area of Turin. A core argument here is that an agency-based approach, focused on the analysis of individual aspirations and every-day practices enacted by migrant care workers in Italy, would contribute to highlight important limitations in the theoretical frameworks on migrant care labour developed so far. Important policy implications will emerge from this explorative study on the life and occupational trajectories of migrant care workers in the Italian care regime.