International Mobility and Social Protection in Europe

Abstract

Social protection policies are the safety net of individuals against all those perils that can put their lifecycles at risk. National welfare states have been traditionally considered as closed systems protecting those who qualify as members of a particular community. However, increased international mobility and supra-national integration have presented with challenges to the concepts of national sovereignty and societal membership. While several EU countries have debated and even introduced restrictions in policies regulating access to social protection for mobile individuals, sending countries have developed new policies and programmes to enhance the protection of their citizens abroad. Likewise, the progressive EU legislation of social security coordination has received different institutional responses from actors increasingly concerned about migrants’ access to social benefits at the domestic level. In this panel, we aim to analyse and discuss the various (re)actions of key institutional actors in home and host countries towards the social protection of mobile individuals from a comparative perspective.