Creating Formal Employment Relationships in the Domestic Services Sector: Successful Strategies Insights from the Project “Labour Market Measures for Reducing Illegal Employment in Private Households of the Elderly”

from the Political Administration In most European countries domestic services are often provided by third parties. Almost every-where this is to a large extent done through informal employment. This means that several mil-lion women are in precarious employment relationships in private households Europe-wide. So far, discourses in the nation states have paid little attention to the situation – it is often pretend-ed that the problem is not there instead of taking a close look. The time for changes is ripe, because the demand for domestic services is increasing, especially with regard to the growing number of elderly people, who cannot continue living in their own four walls without having access to services supporting their daily life. Change begins with the appearance of the topic in political discourses so that it becomes visible and tangible. Only then appropriate strategies can be taken for developing improved framework conditions for domestic services. The EU-project “Labour Market Measures for Reducing Illegal Employment in Private Households of the Elderly “ gives important impulses for political discourses and derived strategy develop-ment. We are proud that we could represent the Social Ministry of Hesse in the project team and gain first-hand insights into the initiation of national, regional and communal discourses on th