Majda Hrženjak’s Visiting Professorship at the University of Helsinki

On November 11, 2026, Majda Hrženjak delivered a guest lecture titled “Care Extractivism Beyond Households” at the University of Helsinki. The lecture was organized by the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN) and the research program “Diversity in Society and Life” (DIVSOL). Drawing on the case of labor migration from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to Slovenia, she introduced the concept of “care extractivism”—a political-economic logic wherein care systems extract value from feminized and racialized labor. She demonstrated how the differing geopolitical positions of Slovenia and BiH following the breakup of Yugoslavia have created conditions in which care labor in Slovenia faces shortages, while in BiH, it becomes mobile and accessible for cross-border extraction. In this context, female workers from BiH are framed as being culturally close enough to perform care work, yet politically and economically distinct enough to be incorporated under unequal terms. The lecture emphasized that, in the face of labor shortages, the question should not merely be where to find new care workers; rather, the focus must be on which political decisions have rendered care work unattractive, how migration regimes facilitate the exploitation of these workers, and what “care gaps” emerge in the countries from which they originate.