Social Protection Policies in Regional Integration Organisations: A Supranational Perspective Regarding the Link between Immigration and Welfare State

Social protection schemes for international migrants are usually created and implemented unilaterally within the capacities of the national legislation, mainly by the host country. In the majority of the cases portability and exportability of social protection policies depends on bilateral agreements between the sending and the host county. Nevertheless, in the past decades supranational organisations, such as the European Union (EU), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), have emerged and their legislation attempts to unify practices amongst member states in order to facilitate transnational cooperation. The EU is the leading paradigm of implementing multilateral social protection agreements covering not only EU citizens, but also extending its policies to third-country nationals (TCNs) after a certain period of residence within the borders of EU. Having as a starting point the example of EU this paper aims to address the extent to which Latin American regional integration organisations, drafted and implemented similar social protection schemes for their respective nationals and/or their TCNs and compare those practices across organisations. Hence, the paper will answer to the following questions: Do the Latin American organisations favour the portability of social benefits across their MS or even their non-MS? and How the practices of other supranational institutions converge or diverge from the policies legislated by the EU?