Survey of German private households: Impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions on affected families in Germany

Integration Department

Project head: Dr. Niklas Harder ,  Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka

Project team members: Mathis Herpell

In 2019, around 4.1 million people in Germany were in need of care, of whom just under 80 per cent were cared for at home (Federal Statistical Office 2020). The still great desire of older people to be able to live in their familiar surroundings for as long as possible is promoted by the "priority of home care" (§3 SGB XI) in social long-term care insurance. In this context, the responsibility for care is transferred to women in particular in the sense of a "familialist care system" (Emunds et al. 2019). What impact the pandemic and the associated measures had on care arrangements in private households in Germany will be investigated in the project.

Individual research findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic support and care arrangements are already available (Horn and Schweppe 2020; Klaus and Ehrlich 2021; Eggert et al. 2020). However, the previous studies do not provide any insights into the situation in households supported by a foreign caregiver. However, the modules already realised within the project "Home care in times of the pandemic" (interviews with experts and representatives of placement agencies, CAWI survey of Polish caregivers in Germany) give indications that households with foreign caregivers faced special challenges as a result of the pandemic-related measures. For example, the results show that informally employed caregivers were more likely to have left Germany during the first peak phase of the pandemic and returned to their countries of origin. Accordingly, the question of the reorganisation of support and care arrangements in the transnational system of home care is of central interest. In addition to the pandemic-related effects, the survey should for the first time provide reliable insights into the transnational care system in general from the perspective of private households. One focus should be on the question of the extent to which households are aware of the labour law provisions of "round-the-clock care".

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)