Legal Mechanisms of Invisibilisation: Exclusion and Differentiation

Abstract This article advances the socio-legal debates on invisible work and on migrant domestic care work by exploring how legal mechanisms contribute to the invisibilisation of so called 24-hour care work in Austria. Building on feminist legal scholarship and the concept of ‘invisible work,’ it identifies two distinctly legal mechanisms – exclusion and differentiation – that devalue and obscure domestic care work. The article examines how exclusion from protective labour laws and differentiation within legal frameworks perpetuate invisibility. It traces Austria’s legal treatment of domestic care work from its marginalisation in early labour law to the formalisation of live-in care under the Home Care Act 2007. Highlighting the role of migration regimes in shaping workers’ rights, the article argues that even formalised legal structures sustain invisibility by relegating care workers – predominantly migrant women – to lesser protection. By taking the ambivalences of both the law and visibility seriously, it sharpens the concept of ‘invisible work’.