Our project

The ERC-funded project “Migration and Transnational Social Protection in (Post) Crisis Europe” (MiTSoPro) led by Pr. Jean-Michel Lafleur examines the link between migration and welfare across 40 countries, including all EU27 Member States and 13 non-EU countries. The first part of the project was conducted jointly with Dr. Daniela Vintila and Angeliki Konstantinidou. It aimed to answer the following research questions: What kind of social benefits can migrants access in their host countries and what type of social protection entitlements can they export from their origin countries? Do some migrant groups benefit from an easier formal access to welfare benefits than others? Do some countries offer more inclusive social protection regimes for immigrants and emigrants alike? To address these questions, we quantitatively examined the eligibility conditions under which national residents, non-national residents and non-resident nationals can access social benefits (in kind and cash) across five core policy areas: healthcare, unemployment, old-age pensions, family benefits and social assistance. We also analyse the specific programs and initiatives led by home country authorities (consulates, diaspora institutions, home country ministries/agencies responsible for specific social policies areas) to respond to the social protection needs of their nationals residing abroad. The quantitative dataset was compiled based on two surveys with 100+ national experts (social policy and migration scholars) across the 40 countries analysed. In addition to this analysis of migrants’ formal access to social protection, the second part of the MiTSoPro project consisted in long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted by Dr. Alexandra Voivozeanu, Dr. Jérémy Mandin, Carole Wenger and Félicien de Heusch. It documented the experiences of French, Romanian, Tunisian and Senegalese migrants accessing social protection in various countries in Europe and beyond, in order to better understand how formal entitlements are combined with informal cross-border social protection practices.

MiTSoPro benefited from the guidance of the following advisory committee members:

Evelyn Astor, International Trade Union Confederation Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, Warsaw School of Economics Daniel Clegg, University of Edinburgh Michael Collyer, University of Sussex Yves Jorens, Ghent University Alain Jousten, University of Liège Madalina Moraru, Masaryk University and European University Insitute Eva Østergaard-Nielsen, Autonomous University of Barcelona Luicy Pedroza, Colegio de México Frans Pennings, University of Utrecht Kitty Stewart, London School of Economics Frank Vandenbroucke, University of Amsterdam