A Systematic Literature Review of Au Pairing: Insights From the Path

Abstract

Different definitions of Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) have, at their core, the systematisation of legal data. The systematic literature review (SLR) is a technique that can be used in the scope of ELS, to collect and analyse all relevant studies of a given topic. To this end, SLR employs a staged procedure to increase the transparency of the research being performed and to present it coherently. This technique plays a major role in exploring subjects which are underexplored and undertheorised, as well as when lacking official data. In this paper, we present an SLR focusing on the definition of au pairs in the scientific literature. Au pairing is one of the most frequent forms of care provision in Europe. However, the inclusion of au pairs’ mobility under the definition of ‘labour migration’ for the purpose of care provision is still debated, leaving the phenomenon in a grey area. This can impact both the social and labour rights of au pairs. On this basis, we identify the need to investigate the au pairing phenomenon through a legal approach, grounded in a multi-disciplinary perspective. In this context, we present our protocol for a systematic literature review, composed of five steps on top of the definition of the research design (Step 0): Search protocol (Step 1); Non-relevance criteria and duplicates (Step 2); Relevance criteria (Step 3); Analysis (Step 4); Coding (Step 5). The development of this approach is part of a broader research, representing one of its conceptual foundations.