Globalization and the Increase in Transnational Care Work: The Flip Side JEAN L. PYLE University of Massachusetts Lowell and Center for Women and Work, USA ABSTRACT I argue that to understand the reality of who is (or is not) accessing care globally, we must examine the flip side of the flows of women migrating transnationally to perform caring labor. The flip side includes the levels of care the migrants experience and that attained by their families in their absence. Most migrants endure a care deficit, working in physically and emotionally stressful situations where they encounter many forms of discrimination. Their families may be better off economically, but not emotionally. I examine the role of the state, pointing out that many governments face a double bind—needing women to migrate for economic reasons but not wanting citizens abused abroad or the accompanying adverse publicity. I critique several government responses to this dilemma and conclude by assessing recent international initiatives to address migration problems, suggesting they lack perspective on how globalization influences women’s migration. My focus in this article is on the relationship of the recent period of globalization with flows of transnational caring labor, looking specifically at who is (or is not) receiving care. 1 This issue has distinctly gendered dimensions and complicated inequities that also involve class, age, national origin, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and culture. It has economic, political, social, ethical and moral aspects and implications. It is a critical matter for all involved: the indi- viduals migrating to provide caring labor, their families, the households and institutions in which they work, and both sending and receiving countries. Caring labor—and who does or does not receive it—is also an essential concern for sustainable human development. As a chapter entitled ‘The Invisible Heart—Care and the Global Economy’ in the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Report 1999 points out: Studies of globalization and its impact on people focus on incomes, employment, education and other opportunities. Less visible, and often neglected, is the impact on care and caring labour —the task of providing for dependants, for children, the sick, the elderly and (do not forget) all the rest of us Correspondence Address: Email: Jean_Pyle@uml.edu 1474-7731 Print=1474-774X Online/06=030297–19 # 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080=14747730600869995 Globalizations September 2006, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 297–315