Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Migration und Sozialstaat

How adaptable are social welfare and migration regimes to migration?

 

Historical-sociological approaches to explaining socio-structural differences within Europe have repeatedly postulated institutional "elective affinities", e.g., between political and welfare state systems (see Flora et al. 1999; Esping-Andersen 1999), aspects of which also relate to the flexibility of labor markets and the labor market integration of migrants (Brücker et al. 2013).

So far, however, there has been little research on the question of whether the respective migration and integration policy regimes also fit such patterns, and whether the integration of ethnic minorities differs depending on regime configuration. While Koopmans (2009) points to negative integration effects of inclusive integration regimes paired with strong welfare states, Goodman et al. (2015) find almost no notable effects of integration-political regimes.

We propose considering the incentives for integration in different regimes types, including the ethnic- and religious-based social capital of immigrant groups, as part of a club goods approach (Berman 2012). There may be a trade-off between flexible labor market regimes and dependencies on ethnic and religious communities, as the latter can provide aspects of social security, but demand group membership commitments in return.

Secondary analyses of existing individual data in the EU member states are planned in order to uncover links between labor market integration, social benefits, and indicators of ethnic and religious capital, thus providing a more comprehensive picture of the integration benefits of different institutional arrangements.