What Drives the Immigration-Welfare Policy Link? Comparing Germany, France and the United Kingdom

Western European states have increasingly linked immigration and welfare policy. This trend has important implications for European welfare-state trajectories, but accounts of the policy reasoning behind it have diverged. Are policymakers attempting to delimit social citizenship to secure welfare-state legitimacy? Pursuing new, market-oriented welfare-state goals? Symbolically communicating immigration control intentions to voters? Or attempting to instrumentally steer immigration flows? These accounts have rarely been tested empirically against each other. Redressing this, we employ 83 elite interviews in a comparative process-tracing study of policies linking welfare provision and immigration status in Germany, France, and the UK during the 1990s. We find little evidence suggesting welfare-guided policy reasonings. Rather, this policy linkage appears “immigration-guided:” meant to control “unwanted” immigration or resonate symbolically in immigration politics. Differences in exclusions from welfare support for migrants grew from existing national differences in welfare-state design and politicizations of immigration, not from policy intentions, which were largely shared.

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The “Pull Factor” Problematization in the Emergence of Everyday Bordering in the UK Welfare State

Genealogy ◽

10.3390/genealogy5040093 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 93

Author(s):

Mike Slaven

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Social Life ◽

The State ◽

Pull Factor ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Control Failure ◽

Elite Interviews ◽

The Uk ◽

State Interventions ◽

British State

The “everyday bordering” concept has provided key insights into the effects of diverse bordering practices upon social life, placing the bordering of the welfare state among wider state interventions in an autochthonous politics of belonging. Sociological contributions have also introduced new explanations as to why states pursue such measures, positing that neoliberal states seek legitimacy through increasing activities to (re)affirm borders within this politics of belonging, compensating for a failure to govern the economy in the interests of citizens. To what extent is this visible in the state-led emergence of (everyday) borders around welfare in the United Kingdom, often cited as a key national case? This article draws from 20 elite interviews to contribute to genealogical accounts of the emergence of everyday bordering through identifying the developing “problematizations” connected to this kind of bordering activity, as the British state began to distinctly involve welfare-state actors in bordering policies in the 1990s and early 2000s. This evidence underlines how these policies were tied to a “pull factor” problematization of control failure, where the state needed to reduce various “pull factors” purportedly attracting unwanted migrants in order to control immigration per se, with little evidence that legitimacy issues tied to perceived declining economic governability informed these developments in this period. These findings can inform future genealogical analyses that trace the emergence of everyday bordering.

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Conclusion

Welfare, Inequality and Social Citizenship ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447337461.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Edmiston

Keyword(s):

Public Service ◽

Great Recession ◽

Relative Deprivation ◽

Welfare Policy ◽

Political Agency ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

The Great Recession ◽

The Everyday ◽

The Uk ◽

The Relationship

This book has examined the relationship between inequality and social citizenship through the everyday accounts of notionally equal citizens in austerity Britain. In doing so, it has sought to establish how citizens perceive and negotiate the material and status hierarchies that condition their lives. In particular, whether and how individuals experiencing relative deprivation and affluence develop distinctive modes of reference, attachment and engagement when it comes to welfare and social citizenship. Since the Great Recession, public service reforms and fiscal recalibration have resulted in an increasingly individualistic and commodified welfare settlement in the UK. These developments have given rise to fault lines in the subjectivity and political agency of social citizens that need to be understood within and as contributing towards systemic processes of inclusion and exclusion. Through a schematic summary of the key themes and lessons that have emerged from this book, this concluding chapter considers what this reveals about the rise of anti-social citizenship and its implications for welfare policy and politics going forward.

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Social Union

State and Nation in the United Kingdom ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198841371.003.0009 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 153-169

Author(s):

Michael Keating

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Health Education ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Social Services ◽

Population Based ◽

The Other ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Uk ◽

Undeserving Poor

Unionists have defended the United Kingdom as a social or ‘sharing’ union in which resources are distributed according to need. It is true that income support payments and pensions are largely reserved and distributed across the union according to the same criteria. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are net beneficiaries. On the other hand, welfare has been detached from older understandings of social citizenship and ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor (strivers and skivers) have returned. Spending on devolved matters including health, education and social services is not equalized across the union. Instead, the Barnett Formula, based on historic spending levels and population-based adjustments, is used. Contrary to the claims of many unionists, there is no needs assessment underlying it, apart from a safeguard provision for Wales. The claim that the UK is a sharing union thus needs to be qualified.

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The Regulatory Welfare State in Pension Markets: Mitigating High Charges for Low-Income Savers in the United Kingdom and Israel

Journal of Social Policy ◽

10.1017/s0047279416000593 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 313-330 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

AVISHAI BENISH ◽

HANAN HABER ◽

ROTEM ELIAHOU

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Low Income ◽

Social Protection ◽

Low Cost ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Different Types ◽

The Individual ◽

The Uk ◽

High Level

AbstractHow does the rising ‘regulatory welfare state’ address social policy concerns in pension markets? This study examines this question by comparing the regulatory responses to high charges paid by low-income workers in pension markets in the UK and Israel. In the UK, with the recognition that the market would not cater to low-income workers, the regulatory response was the creation of a publicly operated low-cost pension fund (NEST), a ‘public option’ within the market. This allowed low-income workers access to a low level of charges, previously reserved for high-income and organised workers. In Israel, regulation sought to empower consumers, while providing minimal social protection by capping pension charges at a relatively high level, thereby leaving most of the responsibility for reducing the charges with the individual saver. By comparing these two cases, the article develops an analytical framework for the study of the regulatory welfare state, making two contributions. First, it highlights different types of regulatory citizenship: minimal regulatory social protection as opposed to a more egalitarian approach. Second, it identifies an overlooked regulatory welfare state strategy: creating ‘public option’ arrangements, whereby a state-run (but not funded) service operates within the market.

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Choice, consumerism and devolution: growing old in the welfare state(s) of Scotland, Wales and England

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x11000602 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 725-746 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

SUZANNE MOFFATT ◽

PAUL HIGGS ◽

KIRSTEIN RUMMERY ◽

IAN REES JONES

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Older People ◽

Public Services ◽

Later Life ◽

Theoretical Research ◽

Retirement Age ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Significant Research ◽

The Uk ◽

First Time

ABSTRACTThe introduction of choice and consumer mechanisms in public services has been identified as a fundamental shift in welfare service provision internationally. Within the United Kingdom (UK), such mechanisms developed and integrated into English services have not been replicated in their entirety in Scotland and Wales. For the first time since the inception of the UK welfare state, there are now formal differences in entitlement for older people as a result of devolution. This paper uses comparative policy analysis to review a range of sources not hitherto brought together in order to explore how these concurrent developments – choice and devolution – impact on people over state retirement age. We also consider the extent to which a more consumerist approach to public services might redress or increase later-life inequalities. Drawing on theoretical research and policy evidence, we argue that for many people over state retirement age, the prospect of becoming a consumer in these varied contexts is difficult and unwelcome. We suggest that although it is too early in the devolutionary process for any significant impact of these divergent policies to materialise, continued policy divergence will lead to different experiences and outcomes for older people in Scotland, Wales and England. We conclude that these divergent social policies offer significant research opportunities, particularly concerning their impact on later-life inequalities.

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‘Governance transitions’ and minority nationalist parties’ pressure for welfare state change: Evidence from Welsh and Scottish elections – And the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum

Global Social Policy ◽

10.1177/1468018116686922 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 279-306 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Paul Chaney

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Social Protection ◽

Central Government ◽

State Change ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

Welfare Change ◽

Welfare State Development ◽

State Models ◽

The Uk ◽

Nationalist Parties

This study is concerned with welfare state development and the intersection between the twin global phenomena of sub-state nationalism and ‘governance transitions’. Specifically, how minority nationalist parties (MNPs) use discourse to exert pressure for welfare change. Accordingly, here, we explore their discourse in Scottish and Welsh elections, and the UK ‘Brexit’ referendum on European Union membership. The findings reveal how pressure for welfare change is framed using key tropes including nation-building, extending social protection and resistance to central government programmes. The wider significance to understanding global social policy lies in the following: (1) revealing the discursive processes associated with multi-level welfare state dynamics, (2) demonstrating how MNPs and governance transitions combine to pressure for welfare state change, and (3) showing how the resultant territorialisation of policy discourse advances ‘sub-state’ models of social citizenship.

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Generational conflict, consumption and the ageing welfare state in the United Kingdom

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x10000425 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 30 (8) ◽

pp. 1439-1451 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

PAUL HIGGS ◽

CHRIS GILLEARD

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Social Policy ◽

Welfare State ◽

Welfare Policy ◽

Generational Conflict ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Future ◽

Future Viability ◽

Working Out ◽

The Welfare State

ABSTRACTThe British welfare state is over 60 years old. Those who were born, grew up and who are now growing old within its ambit are a distinctive generation. They have enjoyed healthier childhoods with better education than previous populations living in Britain. That they have done well under the welfare state is accepted, but some critics have argued that these advantages are at the expense of younger cohorts. The very success of this ‘welfare generation’ is perceived as undermining the future viability of the welfare state, and some argue that the current levels of income and wealth enjoyed by older cohorts can only be sustained by cutbacks in entitlements for younger cohorts. This will lead to a growing ‘generational fracture’ over welfare policy. This paper challenges this position, arguing that both younger and older groups find themselves working out their circumstances in conditions determined more by the contingencies of the market than by social policy.

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Intellectual Roots of the Welfare State

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198828389.013.3 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 38-52

Author(s):

Christopher Pierson ◽

Matthieu Leimgruber

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Welfare State ◽

The United States ◽

Policy Transfer ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

Social Democrats ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

English Speaking ◽

International Learning ◽

The Welfare State

This chapter considers the intellectual roots of the welfare state in changing views about states and their competences from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth centuries. This happens in particular national contexts, with differing patterns of both democratization and bureaucratization. From the beginning, we can observe patterns of international learning and policy transfer. This process is traced through a number of national cases: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the English-speaking nations, Sweden and the United States. Although the welfare state has come to be identified with social citizenship and ‘social justice’, its ideational and normative roots are much more diverse and contested than this. And although the welfare state came to be identified with social democrats, especially after 1945, its origins more usually lie with liberal, or even conservative, forces and ideas.

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