Researchers: Irit Bluvstein¹, Silvia Koton¹

Background: The continuous increase in life expectancy extends the period during which care for older adults is required. In 2025, 79,660 documented and undocumented migrant care workers were employed in Israel in home-based long-term care (often referred to as “foreign workers”), constituting a central workforce in caring for this population. However, knowledge regarding their well-being, psychological burden, and the challenges they face - both in routine and emergency contexts, including exposure to terrorism and war - remains limited.

Objectives: To map and characterize the personal, social, cultural, and occupational-systemic needs, challenges, and resources of live-in migrant caregivers in Israel, with attention to their coping and functioning during wartime.

Method: A qualitative study design was employed, including in-depth interviews (n=17) and longitudinal online focus groups (n=19) with migrant care workers. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Findings: Four central themes emerged: structural dependency (visa status and professional constraints), blurred work–life boundaries (constant availability), meaning and belonging as sources of resilience, and emotional and existential vulnerability (loneliness, physical threat). War was identified as a cross-cutting vulnerability multiplier across all themes.

Conclusions: Findings suggest a dynamic model in which structural dependency leads to blurred boundaries. Within this context, meaning develops alongside increased vulnerability, particularly under conditions of security instability.

Recommendations: Recommendations include reducing legal dependency on employers, clarifying role boundaries, developing accessible psychosocial support services, and promoting a conceptual shift toward recognizing care workers as professional and social agents.

Research end date: 04/2026