Social Protection and Migration: Portability and Access Dr Rachel Sabates-Wheeler Centre for Social Protection Institute of Development Studies Migration and the Right to Health University of London, 26-27 May, 2010
Social Protection and Migration: Portability and Access, Dr Rachel Sabates-Wheeler
Oct 30, 2014
Dr Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, of the Institute of Development Studies, discusses the needs of migrants and the difficulties they face when they try to access social protection.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Social Protection and Migration:Portability and Access
Dr Rachel Sabates-WheelerCentre for Social Protection
Institute of Development Studies
Migration and the Right to HealthUniversity of London, 26-27 May, 2010
Social Protection
• Helping people manage vulnerability and risk• Better risk management risk taking• Risk taking investment and growth• Migration possibly the most important risk
management strategy available …but:• Double/triple disadvantage of migration
Migration creates needs for social protection Migration reduces access to social protection Migration reduces ability to demand social protection
3
Theorising migrant disadvantage
Examples of disadvantage
Determinant of disadvantage
Migrant-specific Intensified (for e.g. low-income actors)
Bureaucratically imposed
Over-representation
Spatial/environmental
Unfamiliarity with surroundings.
Lack of knowledge Public information in local language
Health risks associated with informal settlements.
Socio-political Lack of representation (illegal).
Uncertainty interacting with government
Discrimination in access to services
Lack of political access for slum dwellers.
Socio-cultural Xenophobia Social discrimination based on ethnicity, language, illegal status.
Additional stigmatising requirements to access services
Social perceptions of ‘criminal poor’
Social Protection and Migration
• Portability of social security entitlements Ability to preserve vested social security entitlements
independent of nationality and country of residence• Access to assistance, insurance and social services
In host country, for migrants and their families In home country, for returning migrants and families left behind What services (public, private, occupational): social security,
safety nets, healthcare, education, housing;• Labor markets for international migrants:
Recruitment process in home country Relation b/w immigration policy and LM in host countries
• Informal systems of social protection Migrants typically self-insure through networks, remittances,
savings and investments
Portability
• Majority of migrants face obstacles with regard to portability of benefits, in particular migrants from developing countries
• Healthcare Only few cases of portable healthcare Only between similar, insurance-type systems Financial burden for developing countries No fair cost sharing agreements, not even within EU
• Only about 25% of all migrants are covered, majority in EU (82%)
Only 24.3% of all migrants worldwide covered, but very few migrants from low income countries
Emigrant Stock
Covered Emigrants
Percentage of Stock Covered
Low Income Countries 49.1 1.3 2.6%Lower Middle Income Countries 72.1 12.6 17.4%Upper Middle Income Countries 19.8 4.0 20.1%High Income Countries 34.7 24.8 71.6%World 175.7 42.7 24.3%
EU migrants are by far the best covered migrants
Emigrant Stock
Covered Emigrants
Percentage of Stock Covered
EU-27+ 28.5 23.4 82.2%North America 3.6 2.2 60.3%Middle East and North Africa 14.9 4.0 26.7%Eastern Europe and Central Asia 38.9 5.9 15.3%East Asia and Pacific 21.8 3.1 14.1%Latin America and Caribbean 26.6 2.9 11.0%Sub-Sahara Africa 17.5 0.8 4.6%South Asia 23.9 0.3 1.4%World 175.7 42.7 24.3%
8
Access to social protection
• Two types of investigation into migration and SP: Legal frameworks and rights Actual access to resources
• Migrants often do not receive SP even if they are entitled to it
• We cannot fully understand the portability of SP without analysing Whether migrants actually receive benefits What about the design of the distribution system
excludes them What migrants can do to negotiate improved access
9
Eligibility – physical and political
• Administrative boundaries define different access structures Eligibility criteria Requirements to prove eligibility Mechanisms for distribution Contradictions between human rights, labour rights
and migrant rights• Portability issues exist wherever individuals
cross administrative boundaries Regional/National/Sub-national
How do migrants self-insure?
• Majority of labour migrants are seeking higher income for improving life back home
• The majority are circular, seasonal and typically wish to return
• Informal networks and associations• Length of stay – and distance from home• Migration as SP:
Remittances and savings and asset accumulation• Not interested in contributing to pensions – due to
poverty…interested in asset accumulation back home, healthcare and education for children
11
Key knowledge gaps
• Increasing knowledge on legal frameworks and portability mechanisms
• Understanding actual access and negotiations to improve access by migrants is less well developed
• Part of broader research agenda on migrants’ adverse incorporation to and exclusion from social provisioning from Markets Informal networks and charity Employers Formal organisations
12
Next steps
• Research that focuses on migrants’ actual access and voice around it in…
• A range of access situations between Different types of SP (market, informal, employer, formal) Different types of migration (internal, international, regional)
• Policymaking that pays close attention to the structures that distribute social provisioning to migrants
• Sabates-Wheeler and Feldman, (eds.), (forthcoming), Social Protection and Migration: claiming social rights beyond borders, Palgrave-Macmillan
Related Documents
