Yet another black box: brokering agencies in the evolving market for live-in migrant care work in Austria and Germany

This article analyses the new market for live-in migrant care work in Germany and Austria, focusing on brokering agencies as intermediary actors. The analysis presents unique data on the field by combining an online survey of brokerage agencies with semi-structured qualitative expert interviews. We show that the sector is growing swiftly and dominated by small businesses in both countries but is quite diverse in terms of regional presence, corporate strategies and the relationship with established welfare organisations. Despite different legal settings, malpractices at the household level seem to be constitutive of the brokerage market in Germany as well as in Austria.