This paper investigates how integration policies and welfare-state regimes have affected the socio-economic integration of immigrants, focusing on eight European countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. It presents comparative data on integration policies and welfare-state regimes. The expectations derived from this comparative policy analysis are tested with cross-national data on integration outcomes regarding labour market participation, spatial segregation and incarceration. The results suggest that multicultural policies—which grant immigrants easy access to equal rights and do not provide strong incentives for host-country language acquisition and interethnic contacts—when combined with a generous welfare state, have produced low levels of labour market participation, high levels of segregation and a strong overrepresentation of immigrants among those convicted for criminal behaviour. Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, which have co...

/pdf/trade-offs-between-equality-and-difference-immigrant-4f9ig9vqjv.pdf

Trade-Offs between Equality and Difference: Immigrant Integration, Multiculturalism and the Welfare State in Cross-National Perspective

The dominant theoretical paradigm originating in the work of Cas Mudde conceives of populism as a thin-centered ideology that focuses on the antagonism between people and elites against the backdrop of popular sovereignty. While this framework has contributed significantly to an improved scientific analysis of populism, it is argued in this article that its ideological connotations are ill-conceived both conceptually and methodologically, and that its normative implications and failure to acknowledge the graded nature of populist behavior hinder the further evolution of the field of populism studies. Combining insights from the work of Ernesto Laclau and the proponents of frame theory, the article suggests dropping the ideological clause and simply conceiving populism as a discursive frame. The article contends that frame analysis reveals a strong fit between discursive elements and cognitive features of populism, furnishing solid methodological foundations to conduct empirical research and encouraging cooperation with neighboring fields of social science.

Is Populism an Ideology? A Refutation and a New Perspective:

Summary In analysing the social rights of immigrants, this paper draws on insights from comparative welfare state research and international migration studies. On the premise that the type of welfare regime has an impact on immigrants’ social rights, it utilizes Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology as a point of departure. However, this typology must be complemented by two analytical constructs borrowed from the international migration literature: the immigration policy regime and entry categories associated with the form of immigration. The paper examines the social rights of immigrants in three countries generally regarded as exemplars of the welfare regime types: the United States, representing the liberal regime; germany, the conservative corporatist regime; and Sweden, the social democratic regime. It maps out immigrants’ formal incorporation into the welfare systems of the three countries and pays special attention to legislation from 1990 onwards in order to understand the interplay between welfare regimes, the forms of immigration, and the immigration policy regimes in shaping immigrants’ social rights.

Immigrants’ social rights in comparative perspective: welfare regimes, forms in immigration and immigration policy regimes

The age of migration: international population movements in the modern world

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. The American Welfare Reform: 'Ending welfare as we know it': The 'undeserving poor' 'Ending welfare as we know it' The 'work first' strategy The low-wage labor market The work experience of welfare recipients The attitudes of welfare recipients The decline in the welfare rolls and poverty The future Recommendations to make welfare really work Social citizenship in the US Some lessons from the American experience that might be applicable to Western Europe 3. The European welfare states: social citizenship in the golden age The challenge of unemployment The impact on labor Vulnerable groups: the socially excluded Poverty Right, center and left - questioning the welfare state The 'third way': from status to contract 4. Workfare in western Europe: the United Kingdom Ireland Sweden Norway Denmark The Netherlands France Germany Risks for the socially excluded 5. Social Europe: alternatives? Conclusions? Solutions? Part A. Social Europe: convergence vs. path-dependent Negative vs. positive integration Part B. Reform at the national level Part C. Those who remain.

Social Citizenship and Workfare in the United States and Western Europe: The Paradox of Inclusion

Comparative welfare state research has devoted little attention to the social rights of migrants or the ethnic/racial dimension, even though societies are becoming more ethnically diverse through international migration. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study for the UK, the USA, Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden, this article represents an initial attempt to compare the social rights of migrants and citizens across welfare regimes. We examine the substantive social rights of migrants and ethnic minorities by focusing on their participation in social transfer programmes, and the impact of transfers on their ability to maintain a socially acceptable standard of living compared with the rest of the population. The analysis shows that there are major disparities between how migrant and citizen households fare in welfare states, and that the discrepancies widen for migrants of colour. When the analysis is confined to citizen households, the results largely correspond to the expected performance of welfare regimes. However, when migrants are incorporated into the analysis, intra-regime variations stand out in the case of the liberal and social democratic countries.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0047279405009190

Migrants' social rights, ethnicity and welfare regimes

This article examines the income maintenance policies of several members of the European Union and three candidate countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It addresses the issue of the effectiveness of these policies and especially means-tested safety nets in alleviating poverty. To assess the effectiveness of the policies, we use data from the Luxembourg Income Study. We analyse the incidence of poverty based on the EU poverty line and poverty reduction for the entire population and vulnerable groups - the unemployed, solo mothers, large families, and the elderly. During the 1990s the poverty rates increased in most countries and for most vulnerable groups. Means-tested benefits assumed growing importance in alleviating poverty, and several countries have improved their schemes to guarantee a minimum income. At the same time reforms have produced diversity in the safety nets across Europe.

Poverty in Europe in the mid-1990s: the effectiveness of means-tested benefits

Using the notion of the poverty regime as a heuristic device, this paper examines the safety nets of several members of the European Union and three candidate countries: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland It addresses two board issues: 1) Has there been a convergence in the safety nets of these member countries of the European Union during the 1990s? 2) What are the implications of enlargement of the European Union for the creation of a common safety net? Initially several dimensions of the poverty regime are employed to compare the safety nets Subsequently we analyse the incidence of poverty and poverty reduction for the entire population and vulnerable groups - the unemployed, solo mothers and large families, and the elderly - in the countries using data from the Luxembourg Income Study In analysing poverty reduction effectiveness we utilise both relative and absolute measures to gauge the impact of income maintenance policies, distinguishing between the safety net and other transfers The analysis reveals that during the 1990s the poverty rate increased in most countries and in many instances for vulnerable groups; an exception was the elderly Means tested benefits assumed growing importance in alleviating poverty, but reforms also produced diversity in the safety nets across Europe Contrary to earlier theorising that means tested benefits are marginalized in the social democratic welfare state regime, we find that the safety nets in these countries often equalled or surpassed that of the UK in reducing poverty Finally, apart from impressive poverty reduction, the policies of the three candidate countries did not form a distinctive poverty regime Instead they tended to cluster with other member countries

/pdf/european-anti-poverty-policies-in-the-1990s-toward-a-common-1aqpqs8n1b.pdf

European Anti-Poverty Policies in the 1990s: Toward a Common Safety Net?

Current migration studies and policy reviews neglect the vital link between migration experiences of labour migrants and their return and reintegration process. The objective of this study is to highlight the phenomenon and bring the matter to policy makers’ attention. This study uses in-depth interviews and a series of focus group discussions to explore the relationship between migration experiences and economic reintegration of unskilled Ethiopian women who are return migrants from Middle Eastern countries. Economic reintegration, which in its basic form is about securing a livelihood, is a challenge for most returnees. The reason relates to the migration settings, preparedness and reintegration assistance in the home county. Reintegration assistance for involuntary returnees is beneficial only for those who manage to obtain some savings out of their migration. The findings imply the need for policy improvements regarding the working conditions of female domestic workers in the host countries and reintegration programmes in the home countries.

Ann Morissens

Papers

Migrants' social rights, ethnicity and welfare regimes

Poverty in Europe in the mid-1990s: the effectiveness of means-tested benefits

European Anti-Poverty Policies in the 1990s: Toward a Common Safety Net?

Economic Reintegration of Ethiopian Women Returned from the Middle East

Immigrants social rights across welfare states