Samenvatting

In many European countries immigrants play an important role as employees in the elderly care sector. They are employed by a care providing organisation, or directly by a family as private care assistant. By contrast, in the Netherlands such a development is hardly visible. This article investigates why relatively few migrant workers are employed in Dutch elderly care. The Dutch situation is compared with developments in Italy, Great Britain and Austria. I assess explanations based on demand side, supply side and cultural factors and conclude that especially the large public investments in Dutch elderly care can explain the limited demand for migrant workers. A restrictive immigration policy and language and historical factors play only a minor role. Whether a larger demand for migrant workers will emerge in the future, therefore depends on developments in public elderly care policy.