Migrants’ Access to Social Protection in Croatia
Abstract This chapter focuses on migrants’ access to social protection in Croatia by providing an in-depth analysis of social entitlements in the area of family benefits, pension insurance, unemployment benefits, health care and social welfare benefits. By highlighting the partial harmonization of the national social legislation to the EU acquis, the chapter puts forward the still limited scope of social rights of EU nationals, even several years after Croatia’s accession to the EU. Non-EU nationals have even more limited access to social rights, and they do not enjoy the full scope of family benefits, the right to social housing or other specific social rights, including unemployment benefits and contributory pensions. The chapter also sheds light to on-going discussions on reform of the social system in Croatia, with possible changes of the entitlement to the national pension and family benefits reform.