While feminist scholars long ago realised that care, and caring work, go beyond the household and are deeply implicated in national policies, the next great challenge is to transcend the national framework for care and to think about global responsibilities for care. That different states cope with the contemporary challenges of caring differently is obvious; indeed, a survey of these policies finds them to be ‘worlds apart’ (Razavi and Staab, 2012). But the concerns of care also exceed national boundaries, and the organising of care state by state presents further problems. In recent years, government policies throughout the globe have favoured solutions to the ‘care deficit’ that involve importing care labour from other countries (Yeates, 2004; Misra et al, 2006; Yea-huey, 2007; Beneréria, 2008; Boris and Parreñas, 2010; Elias, 2010; England and Henry, 2013). In welfare states, for example, a turn to individualised support has resulted in an increase in the inmigration of care workers. In other states, special provisions make it easier for employers to bring caring labourers across national borders. Such workers often find themselves unsupported as workers, and often abused. Relying upon them to solve the care problems of the advanced welfare states and other relatively richer sectors in other countries has the result of passing the ‘care deficit’ down the line and into other states. Passing the care deficit down the line makes it a less visible problem, and one that therefore attracts little serious political attention.

How and why might a democratic politics give priority to such issues? In truth, if we take care as it is organised, and democracies as they exist, there is no solution to this problem. But if we think differently about care and democracy, and how it entails global responsibility, we might find a solution.

All humans need care every day of their lives; for some, their care needs are very well met, for others, their care needs go unmet. In general, those who receive more care are the ones who have the greatest resources; those with fewer resources receive less care (Hochschild, 2005). This imbalance is, as many have noted, a fundamental injustice. If we raise our concerns about care to the global level, the imbalance grows even greater.