Social Inequalities Through the Lens of Social Protection: Notes on the Transnational Social Question

Abstract

This concluding article to our special issue places the linkage of social protection and social inequalities in a broader context, namely the transnational social question in Europe and its periphery. The transnational social question pertains to the perception of social inequalities as illegitimate and to their politicisation. In so doing, this article also draws preliminary conclusions, based upon the main findings of the contributions in this special issue, with respect to the social protection strategies utilised by migrants and their significant others, both within and across borders. Transnationality as a marker of heterogeneity is of strategic significance for our understanding of the transnational social question, because it reveals the linkages across the fragmented worlds of social protection. In particular, it provides a window into the social mechanisms that underline social protection across borders and how these mitigate old and generate new social inequalities.

Occupational experiences of high‐skilled intra‐EU immigrants in a transnational space? How European physicians in Germany perceive their career prospects

“…Transnational comparisons were especially detected in the context of skills mismatches after migration, social mobility, and social positioning. In comparing their situations to those of people back home, migrants “navigate around the relative deprivation” (Nowicka, , p. 23) or construct social upward mobility (Faist & Bilecen, ; Mulholland & Ryan, ). These references are closely linked to migrants' social positioning, which potentially stretches beyond national borders (e.g., Eade, Drinkwater, & Garapich, ; Faist, Bilecen, Barglowski, & Sienkiewicz, ; Nowicka, ), and the observation that the evaluation of resources depends on the respective context and should be assessed transnationally (Weiß, ).…”

Retirement Home? Ageing Migrant Workers in France and the Question of Return

“…3.3, this leads to enforcement from state officials, aimed at controlling the residents' comings-and-goings between France and countries of origin. Nonetheless, my focus on the state in this chapter is not intended to downplay the importance of less formal sources of social protection for migrants (Faist and Bilecen 2015), and indeed it will be shown that networks of friends and family may be mobilised by hostel residents to counteract and resist the bureaucratic control of their movements. Nor do I wish -in stressing the timetabling effect of the welfare state -to obscure hostel residents' agency and resourcefulness in accessing 'assemblages' of social protection which operate in places of origin and transnationally (Bilecen and Barglowski 2015;Levitt et al 2016).…”

Pensioners on the Move: a ‘Legal Gate’ Perspective on Retirement Migration to Spain

“…The mobility of the retirement migrants who are better off is thus normalised while the mobility of the retirement migrants receiving a social assistance benefit may be criminalised when they stay for a longer period of time outside the Netherlands. In this way, inequality is reproduced between different types of migrants through state law (see also Faist & Bilecen, ).…”