Transnational Social Protection: Changing Social Welfare in a World on the Move

CCIS/CSIM Seminar May 17, 2024
Authors: Erica Dobbs & Peggy Levitt
Discussant: Jean-Michel Lafleur

Transnational Social Protection: Changing Social Welfare in a World on the Move
Increasing numbers of individuals live for long periods outside their countries of citizenship without full rights or voice as long-term residents without membership. More and more people also live as long-term members without residence, residing outside their native country while still participating in its political and economic life. Over the past three decades, scholars have examined the many kinds of transnational social fields that emerge as a result – i.e., networks, relationships, and institutions that operate across borders. Migrants and non-migrants co-construct these to earn their livelihoods, claim their political rights and fulfill their political
responsibilities, and to protect and provide basic care for their families. These dynamics fundamentally challenge nationally-based social welfare systems in ways that we are just beginning to understand. Our talk, based on our new book that is co-authored with Ken Sun and Ruxandra Paul will synthesize research on transnational social protection, discuss recent theoretical developments, and offer a new conceptual framework to analyze the interplay of protection, precarity, and transnational migration.