scholarly journals The “Silent Reserves” of the Patriarchal Chinese Welfare System: Women as “Hidden” Contributors to Chinese Social Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5267
Author(s):  
Yingqi Wang ◽  
Tao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rural Dwellers

Scholars of social inequality in China have commonly concentrated on strata-related social welfare systems that divide the population into urban and rural dwellers, and additionally, into different welfare classes such as civil servants, employees, and migrant workers. Following Esping-Andersen, Siaroff, Sainsbury, and others, this paper brings the perspective of “gendering welfare” into the study of Chinese social policy. Focusing upon two major social policy branches in China—the old age pension insurance system and care services within the household—it discusses the role of Chinese women in these two fields. Through a gender-sensitive analysis, this paper elaborates the social phenomenon of “silent reserves” (namely, women) within the Chinese welfare regime. While women assume a crucial role in intrafamily care services, constituting the chief contributors of long-term care and childcare, their care contributions at home are not recognized as “social achievements” and are not monetarily compensated by the patriarchal Chinese welfare state. In addition, this paper argues that women are systematically disadvantaged by pension insurance arrangements. Furthermore, the individualization of care services in the intrafamily context weakens the pension entitlements of women, since their unpaid care constrains their ability to maintain full-time jobs in the labor market.

SOCIAL WELFARE OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE EU: COMPARATIVE MODELS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEGAL INTEGRATION SYSTEM OF THE EAEU STATES

2021 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Agashev ◽  
◽  
Sergey G. Trifonov ◽  
Kristine V. Trifonova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Eu

The article assesses the EU legal system as a unique institutional unit and highlights its features. It deals with the comparative legal aspects of the regulation of the social welfare of migrant workers in the EU and the EAEU. Attention is paid to the study of legislation on social welfare for migrant workers in the EU, as well as the possibility of realizing the experi-ence accumulated within the EAEU. It is emphasized that the use of comparative models con-cerning the social welfare of migrant workers in the EU and the EAEU can be productive, taking into account the analysis of the state and dynamics of the EU's legal policy in its historical development. The authors have analyzed the historical stages reflecting the difference within the EU approaches to the regulation of social welfare relations for migrant workers. The emphasis is on the role of EU administrative institutions, which provide a balancing approach to the key principles and social policy settings, due to the desire to eliminate distortions and possible conflicts between the norms of states. At the same time, EU members have the competence within the existing common standards of financial security obligations to expand the estab-lished standards and this makes the EU's social policy geographically differentiated. It is noted that the allied states, formed on trade and economic grounds, such as the EU and the EAEU, are characterized by an objective desire for a single legal space, with the uni-fication of approaches on the social welfare of migrant workers throughout the Union. Never-theless, in complex interstate unions, it is impossible to abandon the principle of multi-level regulation of social and security relations, and in this sense, the situation in the EU and the EAEU is quite similar. The current state of EU law in terms of regulating the relations under consideration largely preserves national legal regimes, and each of them, through its special legal means, determines a different amount of social rights of migrant workers. In the context of the EAEU, a similar approach should not be considered productive, since it does not contribute to the goals of this interstate association, defined by Article 4 of the Treaty on its creation. Therefore, within the framework of the EAEU, it is advisable to fix as early as possible the uniform standards in the area of social welfare of migrant workers, estab-lishing a relatively narrow range of powers of the member states of the Union.

scholarly journals The Employment of Migrant Workers in Long-Term Care: Dynamics of Choice and Control – ERRATUM

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-231
Author(s):  
Isabel Shutes
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
London School ◽  
Term Care ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
London School Of Economics ◽  
And Control

Within the article by Shutes (first published online, 15 September 2011) the Author's affiliation was incorrectly inserted during the production process. The correct affiliation is the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford, and the Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science. The publisher apologises for any inconvenience this has caused.

scholarly journals SOCIAL SECURITY FOR MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE BRICS COUNTRIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-247
Author(s):  
Tatyana V. Luzina ◽  
Tatyana A. Anbrekht
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
The Social

The study of current practices in the legal regulation of social and labour relations in the BRICS countries indicates the need to ensure equal treatment of migrant workers with national workers. Discriminatory barriers to migrant workers accessing social security systems contained in the legislation of receiving countries (the legal status of the migrant, duration of stay and other). The legislation of the country of origin of migrant workers also excludes them from the social security systems. Foreign nationals, residing temporarily in Russia, are subject to compulsory pension insurance. The payment of insurance contributions allows establishing a certain amount of pension rights. However, they often do not acquire the right to insurance, since the insurance pension is granted only to foreign nationals permanently resident in Russia. Basic old-age insurance, basic medical insurance, work injury insurance, unemployment insurance, and maternity insurance extend to foreigners legally working in China. In Brazil, foreign workers are insured under the General Social Security Regime. However, it establishes progressive premium rates. In India, international employees are required to be registered as members of the Employees’ Provident Fund and to contribute to it. Foreign nationals, who have entered South Africa to work under a contract of employment and who have been forced to leave the Republic, are not covered by the social security. It is therefore essential to design and implement policies that will strengthen the sustainability of the social security system and eliminate discriminatory norms between labor migrants and national workers.

scholarly journals About time: gender equality in Malta's working-time regime?

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Camilleri-Cassar
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Unpaid Care

To what extent does Malta's social policy support gender equality, in the use of time? How much do state policies assume that men and women both need time to care, as well as for paid work? Does Malta's full-time paid work structure allow time for the equal sharing of unpaid care responsibilities between women and men, that in turn enhances gender equity in the workplace and domestic sphere? Themes that emerge in the study rest largely on women's voices. The study finds that women need to shift their full-time economic activity to shorter and flexible working hours when they become mothers, with negative consequences of loss in income and career regression. Labour market exit and financial dependence on men is also a frequent occurrence. The findings of the study suggest that strong pressure to assume traditional roles is embedded not only in Maltese culture and social norms, but also in the state's own social policy.

scholarly journals Social Policy, COVID-19 and Impoverished Migrants: Challenges and Prospects in Locked Down India

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohini Sengupta ◽  
Manish K. Jha
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

As countries shore up existing safeguards to address the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, India faces a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented proportions. Ninety per cent of the Indian workforce is employed in the unorganised sector; uncounted millions work in urban areas at great distances from rural homes. When the Government of India (GOI) announced the sudden ‘lockdown’ in March to contain the spread of the pandemic, migrant informal workers were mired in a survival crisis, through income loss, hunger, destitution and persecution from authorities policing containment and fearful communities maintaining ‘social distance’. In this context, the article analyses how poverty, informality and inequality are accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of ‘locked down’ migrant workers. The article examines the nature and scope of existing social policy, designed under changing political regimes and a fluctuating economic climate, to protect this vulnerable group and mitigate dislocation, discrimination and destitution at this moment and in future.

scholarly journals The Grandmothers’ Farewell to Childcare Provision under China’s Two-Child Policy: Evidence from Guangzhou Middle-Class Families

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Zhong ◽  
Minggang Peng
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Child Policy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Middle Class Families

As China’s one-child policy is replaced by the two-child policy, young Chinese women and their spouses are increasingly concerned about who will take care of the ‘second child.’ Due to the absence of public childcare services and the rising cost of privatised care services in China, childcare provision mainly relies on families, such that working women’s choices of childbirth, childcare and employment are heavily constrained. To deal with structural barriers, young urban mothers mobilise grandmothers as joint caregivers. Based on interviews with Guangzhou middle-class families, this study examines the impact of childcare policy reform since 1978 on childbirth and childcare choices of women. It illustrates the longstanding contributions and struggles of women, particularly grandmothers, engaged in childcare. It also shows that intergenerational parenting involves a set of practices of intergenerational intimacy embedded in material conditions, practical acts of care, moral values and power dynamics. We argue that the liberation, to some extent, of young Chinese mothers from childcare is at the expense of considerable unpaid care work from grandmothers rather than being driven by increased public care services and improved gender equality in domestic labour. Given the significant stress and seriously constrained choices in later life that childcare imposes, grandmothers now become reluctant to help rear a second grandchild. This situation calls for changes in family policies to increase the supply of affordable and good-quality childcare services, enhance job security in the labour market, provide supportive services to grandmothers and, most importantly, prioritise the wellbeing of women and families over national goals.

“First to Work; Last to Sleep”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer N. Fish
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Private Household ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Trajectory

Chapter 4 outlines the historical trajectory of domestic workers’ social position, “from slaves to workers.” It spells out the terms of the domestic worker protections debated within the ILO, with special attention given to the issues and concerns that generated the widest debate. The discussion examines the tripartite negotiations among government, employer, and worker organizations over the course of two International Labour Conferences, with an eye on the larger meanings of the terms debated on the social policy floor. Migration emerges as a central point of debate in the negotiating process, as policymakers confronted the challenges of protecting migrant workers in the private household.

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