Dissertationen

The recruitment of Mexican nurses to Germany. On the contradictory constitution of a transnational Nursing-Care-Chain.

Given the severe shortage of skilled workers in the German healthcare system, the recruitment of nurses from third countries is increasingly being discussed as a (partial) solution to the care crisis. This qualitative doctoral research project is based on a case study of nursing recruitment from Mexico to Germany, examining it as an emerging "Nursing Care Chain" (Yeates 2012). It explores how state-led ethical recruitment initiatives serve as ‘trailblazers’ for profit-driven recruitment practices. The project analyzes how the complex interplay of public and private recruitment actors shapes the transnational labor market (Mense-Petermann 2020) in nursing. It further discusses the implications for international nursing professionals and the healthcare systems involved. The concept of "structural carelessness" (Aulenbacher 2020) in capitalist societies provides the theoretical framework. Data collection is conducted through semi-structured interviews with experts and Mexican nurses at various stages of their recruitment process, as well as through participant observation.

Keywords: labor migration, global nursing care chains, care crisis, mexico, transnational labor markets

Email: leoni[dot]schlender[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Intersectional, Socialist, in Solidarity? Women’s Encounters in GDR-African Trade Union Alliances

My PhD project investigates the largely overlooked role of women in GDR-African trade union alliances during (and after) the Cold War. While research on East-South trade union cooperation has expanded, women’s contributions remain marginalized. By examining archival records and oral histories, this project explores whether the solidarities practised between women trade unionists differed from broader projects of socialist solidarity. Through an intersectional lens, the research seeks to contribute to a more nuanced historiography of transnational East-South trade unionism, revealing new insights into the intersections of gender, class, and race in Cold War labour activism and adding new perspectives to research on transnational solidarity.

Keywords: Transnational trade unionism, intersectionality, solidarity, Cold War

E-Mail: hanna[dot]roessner[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

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The Migration of Nurses from Turkey to Germany

This doctoral project examines how nurses who migrated from Turkey to Germany in the last decade responded to the shortage of nurses in Germany, and how this migration process manifested itself in their experiences. The focus is on the precarious conditions that nurses encounter during and after migration, which extend beyond the workplace. Taking a feminist global political economy approach, the project utilises Yeates' (2009) concept of global nursing care chains. The ‘care crisis’ is critically analysed from the perspective of social reproduction. The link between migration controls and the precariousness shaping the experiences of migrant nurses is also examined. The qualitative, case study-based research design incorporates document review and content analysis, as well as semi-structured and follow-up interviews with nurses and expert interviews. Beyond enhancing our understanding of the migration process, this study creates a space to explore how nurses navigate the precarious conditions produced and reproduced through international healthcare labour migration and migration regimes.

Keywords: International migration of nurses, ‘care crisis’, recruitment of nurses in Germany, migrant nurses' experiences, precarity

E-Mail: tureraylin[at]gmail[dot]com

Unfree Labor and Violence: A Study of Female Workers in the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) Industry in Bangladesh

This dissertation examines the pervasive conditions of unfree labor and gender-based violence experienced by female workers in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry. As a cornerstone of the country’s economy, the RMG sector employs millions of women; yet systemic exploitation, low wages, job insecurity, and workplace violence continue to define their labor experiences. This study interrogates the intersection of economic dependency, patriarchal power structures, and gendered labor hierarchies that entrench these women in cycles of unfreedom. Drawing on feminist political economy and labor value chain analyses, the research critically explores how the dual burden of paid employment and unpaid domestic work sustains coercive labor regimes. Employing qualitative methodologies, including in-depth interviews and case studies with unionized female workers, the study provides a nuanced understanding of power dynamics within factory settings. By foregrounding the voices of female workers, this dissertation contributes to scholarly debates on gendered labor exploitation, economic justice, and global supply chain inequalities, offering insights for policy interventions and labor rights advocacy.

Keywords: Unfree labor, violence, feminist political economy, labor exploitation.

Email: habibaeka51[at]gmail[dot]com

Precarious Solidarity - An Ethnographic Case Study of Collective Resistance and Organization among Georgian Seasonal Farmworkers in Germany

This patchwork ethnographic dissertation project scrutinizes how collective practices of resistance and organization emerge among seasonal farmworkers in the German agricultural labor migration regime. Taking labor conflict as the analytical point of departure, I focus on and collaborate with a group of Georgian seasonal farmworkers recruited in the first German-Georgian seasonal worker agreement who engaged in a variegated, multi-year labor struggle. This is in order to analyze how they engaged in resistance and collective organization in the face of the hegemonic atomizing conditions of exploitation and domination. The multi-scalar inquiry analytically weaves together the sectorally novel logistified third-country migration-governance attempt with the workers’ transnational engagement with German and Georgian trade union, state, and civil society structures, as well as their practices at the site of production.

Keywords: labor migration, precarity, seasonal work, trade unions, collective organization 

E-Mail: markus[dot]koeck[at]sk-hs-fulda[dot]de

Racialized Difference and the Plantation Labor Regime

Over the past 25 years, rural communities in northern Costa Rica have witnessed a rapid transformation. Large areas have been converted to export-oriented pineapple production, best described as agro-extractivist enclaves. This industry structurally depends on migrant workers from the neighbouring country of Nicaragua. By taking the pineapple sector as an emblematic example of the neoliberalization of agriculture, my thesis explores the gendered and racialized dynamics of global production. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I employ the concept of Plantation Labor Regime to understand these dynamics and their impact on daily life on and beyond the plantation.

Keywords: Labor Regimes, Racialization, Agriculture, Plantation

E-Mail: m[dot]ott[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Website