Migration and Transnational Social Protection: Policy Changes and Migrants’ Access to Welfare across European Democracies

Abstract

This panel aims to address the recent transformations of welfare policies towards EU and non-EU immigrants in Europe and their impact on migrants’ lives. Following the financial and economic crisis and the so-called “refugee crisis”, several European democracies have started to witness fierce debates on the connection between migration and welfare systems. However, the way in which this politicisation of migration translated into policy changes in terms of migrants’ access to social protection in the EU has not been sufficiently explored so far. Furthermore, the extent to which these transformations of the welfare systems of EU Member States affect migrants’ lives is still largely unknown. This panel aims to fill this gap by focusing on two aspects. Firstly, we seek to explore how European welfare systems are adjusting to increased mobility by paying particular attention to the transformation of social protection policies (in areas such as health care, unemployment, pensions, family benefits and/or guaranteed income) towards migrants. Secondly, we aim to discuss migrants’ individual experiences in terms of accessing social protection in their EU (home and host) countries, thus trying to identify the specific role that formal welfare entitlements play in migrant social protection strategies. We welcome empirically and conceptually based contributions.

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