The unpaid labour of childcare is not recognised as “genuine and effective work”.
This is a problem for the residency rights of EU nationals living in the UK, argues Isabel Shutes from LSE in a July 2017 article on childcare, work and residency rights.
The article states that women with childcare responsibilities are at greater risk of losing their status as ‘workers’ and therefore must either rely on a partner who is a working EU citizen or be self-sufficient to claim residence rights.
This is a critical issue in Brexit negotiations and the future rights of EU nationals living in the UK are of prominent concern.
Isabel Shutes concludes that Brexit negotiators must avoid putting an extra, gendered burden on women to prove their right to stay.