It is not only about access: Transnational Bolivian families in Barcelona and their meanings of social protection

Abstract

The ambition of this exploratory article is to contribute to the analyses of transnational social protection, highlighting the relevance of migrants’ agency. Specifically, I argue that the strategies of transnational social protection are manifested in the interface between informal (interpersonal networks) and formal social protection (provided by national states and organisations), not only through their objective elements (multi-sited resources and services), but also by their subjective aspects (actors’ meanings and institutional normative concepts). The understanding of the actors’ subjective meanings has the potential to articulate the interpretation of transnational ways to access resources of social protection, with the comprehension of the meanings that motivate different modes of use of these resources, by mobile and non-mobile actors. In this paper, a survey and semi-structured interviews from the “Return from Transnationalism” project (RETTRANS, 2011-2013) and life story interviews from the ongoing doctoral project “Transnational social protection: Bolivian transnational families in Barcelona and São Paulo” are analysed. La ambición de este artículo exploratorio es contribuir a los análisis de la protección social transnacional, destacando la relevancia de la agencia de los migrantes. En concreto, argumento que las estrategias de protección social transnacional expresan las interfaces entre la protección social informal (redes interpersonales) y formal (proporcionada por los estados y organizaciones nacionales), no sólo a través de sus elementos objetivos (recursos y servicios multisituados) sino también por sus aspectos subjetivos (los significados de los actores y los conceptos normativos institucionales). La comprensión de los significados subjetivos de los actores tiene el potencial de articular la interpretación de las vías transnacionales de acceso a los recursos de protección social con la comprensión de los significados que motivan diferentes modos de uso de estos recursos por parte de actores móviles y no móviles. En este trabajo se analizan una encuesta y entrevistas semi-estructuradas del proyecto Retorno del Transnacionalismo (RETTRANS, 2011-2013) y entrevistas de historias de vida del proyecto doctoral “Protección social transnacional: familias transnacionales bolivianas en Barcelona y Sao Paulo”.

Migration and Welfare States

“…The literature on the micro-foundations of migrants' welfare concerns and decisions to migrate is growing but remains relatively fragmented. For example, scholars have studied separately the provision of care (Lutz 2008) and health services (Bada 2014) to migrants, the role and meanings of dual citizenship (Harpaz and Mateos 2019), migrants' agency for access to transnational social protection (Speroni 2018) and reciprocity between sending remittances and caregiving arrangements (Saksela-Bergholm 2019) from the perspective of transnational social protection. However, this body of literature still suffers from the lack of an integrated dialogue 'that sees health, education, secure retirement, and social security as increasingly constructed within and beyond the nation-state' (Levitt et al 2017, 4).…”

Welfare and Mobility: Migrants’ Experiences of Social Welfare Protection in Transnational and Translocal Spaces

“…The literature on the micro-foundations of migrants' welfare concerns and decisions to migrate is growing but remains relatively fragmented. For example, scholars have studied separately the provision of care (Lutz 2008) and health services (Bada 2014) to migrants, the role and meanings of dual citizenship (Harpaz and Mateos 2019), migrants' agency for access to transnational social protection (Speroni 2018) and reciprocity between sending remittances and caregiving arrangements (Saksela-Bergholm 2019) from the perspective of transnational social protection. However, this body of literature still suffers from the lack of an integrated dialogue 'that sees health, education, secure retirement, and social security as increasingly constructed within and beyond the nation-state' (Levitt et al 2017, 4).…”