Identity construction of caregivers and seniors : from recruitment websites to narratives of resident caregivers

This paper examines the potential of digital storytelling to inform prospective foreign caregivers on recruitment websites and in resident caregivers’ vlogs. The approach adopted is both comparative and contrastive and uses a combination of narrative theory/storytelling to conceptualise the materials and a discourse analytical toolkit to analyse the construction of identity of caregivers (and seniors, where present). The materials include recruitment advertisements in Italian, Russian and English and caregivers’ vlogs in Russian. The findings indicate that job ads in different languages converge only on the fact that a caregiver is seen as a foreign woman, confirming previous sociological research, and on lack of identification of seniors. At the same time, there are multiple differences as to the professional qualifications and personal profile, which are particularly relevant in the case of Russian-language recruitment websites. Caregivers and families with different linguistic background depart in their expectations but these differences would emerge only after the arrival of prospective caregivers, leading to serious practical and social implications. Finally, the findings establish that YouTube vlogs function as a strong knowledge dissemination and empowerment tool, supplementing prospective caregivers with lacking information and giving the resident caregivers’ community a distinctive voice in the digital realm.