Why deservingness theory needs qualitative research. Comparing focus group discussions on social welfare in three welfare regimes

Abstract

This article argues that the ever-growing research field of welfare deservingness is in need of qualitative research. Using focus group data collected in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we show that citizens discussing matters of social welfare make explicit reference not only to the deservingness criteria of control, reciprocity, and need but also to a number of context-related criteria extending beyond the deservingness framework (e.g. equality/universalism). Furthermore, our findings suggest the existence of an institutional logic to welfare preferences, as the focus group participants to a large extent echoed the normative criteria that are most strongly embedded in the institutional structure of their country's welfare regime. Whereas financial need is the guiding criterion in the "liberal" United Kingdom, reciprocity is dominant in "corporatist-conservative" Germany. In "social-democratic" Denmark, it appears impossible to single out one dominant normative criterion. Instead, the Danish participants seem torn between the criteria of need, reciprocity, and equality/universalism.

Constructions of Undeservingness around the Figure of the Undocumented Pregnant Woman in the French Department of Mayotte

“…It thus appears that, while Comorians were blamed for what was perceived as substandard conditions within the public healthcare system, Mahorans’ practices of healthcare access followed a logic of social distancing from Comorians. Najma’s reference to the unwelcome cousins in the introductory quote entails in this regard an apparent paradox for deservingness theory that considers social proximity (Willen and Cook, 2016) or identity (Laenen et al , 2019) as a factor that facilitates the construction of judgements of deservingness. In contrast, discourses by Mahoran social agents tended to combine a fully-fledged acknowledgement of Comorians’ social proximity with a discourse as to their undeservingness to access the department’s healthcare services.…”

“…In the tense context of perinatal and maternity care in Mayotte the criteria of need and control were mobilised to sustain views as to Comorian women’s undeservingness, following lines of thought that have elsewhere served to construct groups as deserving of social welfare (Jensen and Petersen, 2017; Laenen et al , 2019). These healthcare professionals engaged in an active neutralisation of criteria that they assumed others – colleagues or potentially the interviewer – might consider as justifying certain forms of care.…”

“…This article examines how deservingness is qualitatively understood by drawing upon heuristic tools that were first identified through quantitative research into public attitudes towards the social legitimacy of different social groups receiving welfare benefits and accessing social services – the CARIN criteria: Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity and Need (Van Oorschot, 2008; Van Oorschot et al ., 2017), as further detailed in the review article of this themed section. Laenen, Rossetti and van Oorschot argue that the people who are judged as more deserving of social welfare are ‘those perceived to have little or no personal control for getting in or for getting out of their situation’; ‘those that are seen as grateful and compliant’ (attitude); ‘those with higher perceived contributions to society in the past, present or future’ (reciprocity); ‘those that are perceived as belonging to one’s in-group’ (identity) and ‘those who are perceived to have high financial or health needs’ (2019: 9). This article argues that the media-inflated discourse of the Comorian pregnant woman framed as a threat leads to significant shortcomings in maternity care delivery.…”

Gendering the care/control nexus of the humanitarian border: Women’s bodies and gendered control of mobility in a EUropean borderland

“…Residents in the CETI could access primary care because they were destitute, and their attitudes needed to reflect this position, to ‘arouse pity’ as Hanae put it, for the humanitarian provision of care to unfold smoothly. Others have indeed argued in relation to the formation of deservingness judgements that the less individuals or groups are deemed in control of the situation they are in, the more likely they are to be perceived as deserving of assistance (Jensen and Petersen, 2017; Laenen et al., 2019; Spencer, 2016). Agency, or better said perceptions around agency, are thus central in the formation of deservingness judgements.…”

Conceptualising the Role of Deservingness in Migrants’ Access to Social Services

“…The empirical evidence put forward by Yuval-Davis and colleagues (2019) on the growing prevalence of everyday bordering calls for further examination of service provider-migrant relations, as regards both their moral underpinnings and their social implications. At the same time, recent welfare scholarship around deservingness indicates a need to explore this notion qualitatively (Laenen and van Oorschot, 2019). Seeking to contribute to both these perspectives, we contend that the criteria that determine access to key social services reveal what values and norms underpin not only who is deemed deserving of welfare support but also who is believed to belong.…”