Rethinking universalism: Older-age international migrants and social pensions in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

This article criticises the social policy literature for equating universalism to the universal coverage of citizens. The current so-called ‘universal’ social protection systems guarantee social citizen rights, while the revisited truly universalism guarantees social human rights for everyone. Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) is used to map and track the level of exclusiveness or inclusiveness into social pensions in the existing 30 social pension programmes on 28 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The article examines the various paths of eligibility requirements in social pensions conditioning three specific outcomes: (1) access for every older-age individual (truly universal), (2) access for every category of immigrant (no targeting by citizenship or residency) and (3) access for older-age immigrants with legal resident status (targeting by residency but not by citizenship). The research makes several contributions. First, it offers a useful inventory of the eligibility requirements for access to the 30 social pensions in LAC. Second, it proposes an analytical framework to redefine universalism after considering the migration-social policy nexus. Contrary to what the literature claims, there are no universal social pensions in the region. Third, the analysis indicates that only in two countries, Cuba and Jamaica, social pensions have immigrant-friendly targeting rules, requiring neither citizenship nor any length of residency to become a beneficiary. A total of 12 countries require citizenship and 24 of them a certain number of years of residency. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of social pensions are means tested. Finally, the csQCA allows identifying patterns of targeting mechanisms and is used to propose five exploratory regimes of inclusionary social pensions. The article calls for protected international mobility of the older-age population in the form of a truly universalistic system in which the entire aged population has the right to a social pension. Only then, countries would truly adhere to Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The elusive promise of universal social protection: the case of the Greek general minimum income (GMI)

“…INE/GSEE, 2020), but did it protect the most vulnerable part of the Greek population? Two relevant parameters are examined below: first, the level (or “generosity”) of allowances granted to beneficiaries and the alleged “springboard” effect (WB, 2001), if any, of the scheme – that is, whether or not the poor will be in a position to become (future) “risk-takers” in the market; second, population targeting patterns and processes for the distribution of cash transfers, since targeting practices determine the substantiation of rights, and thus what is meant by universality (Cruz-Martínez, 2020).…”

Universal Social Pensions Are Unaffordable … Not! Testing the Unaffordability Hypothesis in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Twenty-eight countries in the region have established non-contributory pensions -also known as social pensions -in the social protection menu to secure a basic social protection floor of income support for the older-age population . However, no country has extended coverage to every older-age individual (Cruz-Martínez, 2020). The literature argues that Bolivia's 'Renta Dignidad', Guyana's Old Age Pension, and Suriname's 'Algemene Oudedags Voorzieningsfonds' are universal social pensions; however, they incorporate citizenship and residency eligibility requirements which exclude multiple categories of migrants (Cruz-Martínez, 2016;ECLAC, 2016;HelpAge International, 2015;Wolff, 2013).…”

Relational aspects and institutional characteristics in global social policy research

“…Seekings (2021) made similar arguments with regard to African norms and cultures. For Latin American countries, Cruz-Martínez (2020) has studied the social rights of older-age international migrants and claimed for ‘protected international mobility of the older-age population in the form of a truly universalistic system in which the entire aged population has the right to social protection’. On a more general level and with specific regard to migrant workers, in 2014 Hennebry identified the problem of ‘a patchwork of uneven levels of protections’, questioning the focus on state-centric models centred on citizens of poor countries.…”