Governing vulnerability through ambivalence: Support measures for migrant domestic workers in and beyond crises

This article examines how ambivalence shapes social policies for vulnerabilised populations, based on an analysis of support measures for migrant domestic workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland. Drawing on interviews with policymakers, civil society actors, and domestic workers, we identify three key dimensions of ambivalence: the conditionality of support, its short-term nature, and the risks and uncertainties entailed. We argue that this ambivalence is not unique to the pandemic but reflects a broader pattern of governance. In this way, the vulnerability of domestic workers is limited yet sustained, rendering them a reliable workforce within the domestic care sector. Our study contributes to an intersectional understanding of welfare governance, highlighting its growing entanglement with migration control and its role in reproducing, rather than reducing, social inequalities.