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.
Social Protection and Migration: Portability and Access, Dr Rachel Sabates-Wheeler
1. 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
2. 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
4. 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
5. 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%)
6. Only 24.3% of all migrants worldwide covered, but very few migrants from low income countries
8. 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. 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
10. 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. 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. 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
Notas del editor
Entitlements/rights are only as useful as the access structures surrounding them
