Lifestyle and retirement migration

MiTSoPro focuses on the link between migration and welfare across different European and non-European countries. The first part of the project closely examines migrants’ access to welfare in home and host countries. In doing so, the project adopts a top-down analytical approach of the concept of Transnational Social Protection from above, thus aiming to provide answers to the following research questions: Do migrants have access to social protection in Europe and beyond? What kind of social benefits can they access in their countries of residence and what type of social protection entitlements can they export from their countries of origin? Do some migrant groups benefit from an easier formal access to welfare benefits than others? Do some countries offer more inclusive social protection regimes for immigrants and emigrants alike? The first part of the project provides an in-depth analysis of eligibility conditions for accessing welfare entitlements across 40 countries. The project thus includes all EU Member States and 12 non-EU sending countries distributed across different continents, whose nationals represent an important share of the migration inflows towards European countries (the 12 non-EU countries included in the project are: Argentina, China, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia and Turkey). For each country, we systematically analyse migrants’ access to social benefits across five core policy areas that are closely examined via a broad range of indicators (i.e. specific types of social benefits in kind and cash): 1) Health care (benefits in kind and cash in case of sickness and invalidity benefits); 2) Unemployment (covering both unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance); 3) Old-age pensions (including contributory and non-contributory pensions); 4) Family benefits (maternity, paternity, parental, and child benefits); 5) Guaranteed minimum resources (social assistance programmes aiming to provide a “safety net” aiming to protect individuals from severe poverty). The data collection process was conducted between April 2019-January 2019, based on a survey with national experts across all country analysed. The survey included standardized questions, thus ensuring comparability across the different countries analysed, despite their different political settings and migration histories. The project covers national legislations in place in 2019. This first dataset on migrants’ access to welfare entitlement is complemented by a second one that examines the programmes and initiatives led by home countries authorities to respond to the social protection needs of their non-resident nationals. Covering the same 40 countries, this second dataset highlights the role of three key actors (consulates, diaspora institutions and home country ministries/agencies responsible for specific social policy areas) through which sending states interact with their nationals abroad across the five policy areas previously mentioned. The data collection of this second dataset is based on another survey conducted between April 2018-January 2019 with national experts across the 40 countries analysed in the project.

Prosjekt "Norske pensjonister og norske kommuner i Spania" består av en levekårsundersøkelse blant norske Spania-pensjonister og en kartlegging av norske kommuners utbygging av sykehjem i Spania. Også andre bo- og omsorgstilbud som er etablert eller planlagt for norske brukere er med i kartleggingen. Datainnsamlingen er begrenset til fastlands-Spania, der fire kommuner er valgt som undersøkelsesområde.Rapporten tar for seg disse spørsmålene.- Hvor stort er omfanget av norsk pensjonistimigrasjon til Spania? - Hvordan opplever norske pensjonister i Spania sin situasjon når det gjelder egen helse og førlighet?- Hvilke preferanser finnes blant disse pensjonistene når det gjelder å motta helsetjenester og annen type hjelp i tilfelle sykdom og skrøpelighet?- Vil pensjonistene vende tilbake til Norge for å motta pleie og omsorg, eller vil de bli boende i Spania også i sen alderdom?- Hvilke muligheter har norske pensjonister til å motta pleie- og omsorgstjenester fra spansk eldreomsorg?- Hvor står norske kommuners utbygging av omsorgstilbud i forhold til norsk pensjonistmigrasjon og i forhold til aktuelle brukere i Norge?

The negative employment and social developments across Europe since the start of the crisis, coupled with increased fiscal constraints and changing migration patterns, have led to increasing depictions of EU and third-country immigrants as ‘abusers’ of their social protection systems. Member States have accordingly sought reduce migrants’ ability to access social protection benefits, despite the fact that they are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This project looks at the different strategies that migrants have to access social protection within (post) crisis Europe and does so by explicitly integrating social policy and migration studies’ approaches on the phenomenon. More precisely, it aims to study transnational social protection, that we define as migrants’ cross-border strategies to cope with social risks in areas such as health, long-term care, pensions or unemployment that combine entitlements to host and home state-based public welfare policies and market-, family- and community-based practices. This study thus consists in, first, identifying the social protection policies and programs that home countries make accessible to their citizens abroad, and then compiling this information into an online database. We will then aggregate the results of the database into a Transnational Social Protection Index (TSPIx) in order to determine the overall level of engagement of each state with citizens abroad in a comparative way. Second, on the basis of the results of the index, we will select case studies of migrants from two EU and two non-EU countries that vary in their level of engagement in providing social protection to their citizens abroad. We will then undertake multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork to qualitatively assess the informal social protection strategies used by migrants and examine their interaction with formal host and home state social protection provision.

The negative employment and social developments across Europe since the start of the crisis, coupled with increased fiscal constraints and changing migration patterns, have led to increasing depictions of EU and third-country immigrants as ‘abusers’ of their social protection systems. Member States have accordingly sought reduce migrants’ ability to access social protection benefits, despite the fact that they are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This project looks at the different strategies that migrants have to access social protection within (post) crisis Europe and does so by explicitly integrating social policy and migration studies’ approaches on the phenomenon. More precisely, it aims to study transnational social protection, that we define as migrants’ cross-border strategies to cope with social risks in areas such as health, long-term care, pensions or unemployment that combine entitlements to host and home state-based public welfare policies and market-, family- and community-based practices. This study thus consists in, first, identifying the social protection policies and programs that home countries make accessible to their citizens abroad, and then compiling this information into an online database. We will then aggregate the results of the database into a Transnational Social Protection Index (TSPIx) in order to determine the overall level of engagement of each state with citizens abroad in a comparative way. Second, on the basis of the results of the index, we will select case studies of migrants from two EU and two non-EU countries that vary in their level of engagement in providing social protection to their citizens abroad. We will then undertake multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork to qualitatively assess the informal social protection strategies used by migrants and examine their interaction with formal host and home state social protection provision.

The negative employment and social developments across Europe since the start of the crisis, coupled with increased fiscal constraints and changing migration patterns, have led to increasing depictions of EU and third-country immigrants as ‘abusers’ of their social protection systems. Member States have accordingly sought reduce migrants’ ability to access social protection benefits, despite the fact that they are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This project looks at the different strategies that migrants have to access social protection within (post) crisis Europe and does so by explicitly integrating social policy and migration studies’ approaches on the phenomenon. More precisely, it aims to study transnational social protection, that we define as migrants’ cross-border strategies to cope with social risks in areas such as health, long-term care, pensions or unemployment that combine entitlements to host and home state-based public welfare policies and market-, family- and community-based practices. This study thus consists in, first, identifying the social protection policies and programs that home countries make accessible to their citizens abroad, and then compiling this information into an online database. We will then aggregate the results of the database into a Transnational Social Protection Index (TSPIx) in order to determine the overall level of engagement of each state with citizens abroad in a comparative way. Second, on the basis of the results of the index, we will select case studies of migrants from two EU and two non-EU countries that vary in their level of engagement in providing social protection to their citizens abroad. We will then undertake multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork to qualitatively assess the informal social protection strategies used by migrants and examine their interaction with formal host and home state social protection provision.