Social assistance trajectories in Switzerland: do they follow discernible patterns?

Abstract

Dynamic research on poverty to date tends to stress the temporalised and democratised nature of the phenomenon. It describes poverty as a short or transient experience shaped essentially by individual characteristics. Empirical evidence, however, remains inconclusive. Recent studies focussing on social assistance paint a more nuanced picture that reveals the existence of both short- and long-term trajectories. The present study aims to advance this debate by exploring trajectory patterns of social assistance recipients in Switzerland. Trajectory patterns have been substantiated by means of sequence analysis. Multinominal logistic regression analysis was then used to study the effect of individual and contextual factors on these trajectories. Results yield four clearly discernible patterns associated with well-established indicators of poverty risk and social inequalities. The study concludes that poverty, defined as social assistance benefit receipt, is neither a highly temporalised nor a markedly individualised phenomenon.

La recherche sur la dynamique de la pauvreté tend actuellement à souligner le caractère temporel et démocratisé du phénomène. Elle décrit la pauvreté comme une expérience de vie plutôt courte ou transitoire qui peut toucher tout un chacun. Or, les résultats de la recherche empirique ne sont pas concluants à ce jour. En particulier, des études récentes sur l'aide sociale livrent une image plus nuancée mettant en évidence autant des trajectoires de courte que de longue durée. Le présent article a pour objectif de faire avancer ce débat. Il est basé sur une étude exploratoire des trajectoires des bénéficiaires de l'aide sociale en Suisse. Les trajectoires ont été mises en évidence à l'aide de l'analyse séquentielle. L'effet de variables individuelles et contextuelles sur ces trajectoires a été investigué par le biais de techniques de régression logistique multinomiale. Les résultats font apparaître quatre trajectoires-types distinctes associées à des indicateurs établis de pauvreté et d'inégalités sociales. L’étude arrive à la conclusion que la pauvreté, appréhendée au travers des trajectoires de recours à l'aide sociale, est un phénomène ni fluctuant dans le temps, ni individualisé, mais plutôt stable ou graduellement évolutif et convergeant au-delà des parcours singuliers.

Keywords:

• social assistance trajectories
• patterns
• determinants
• Switzerland

Mots clés:

• Trajectoires
• aide sociale
• déterminants
• Suisse

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) for providing the data of the Swiss social assistance statistics used in this paper. The FSO does not bear any responsibility for the analysis and interpretation conducted.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Elisabeth Gutjahr is a professor of sociology and social work at the School of Social Work Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland. Her major areas of interest focus on the social construction of social problems, issues of social stratification and social inequalities, as well as poverty and precariousness over the life course.

Jean-Luc Heeb is a professor of sociology at the School of Social Work of Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland. His research topics include social inequality, poverty, and social policy. Currently, he is interested in the study of vulnerability as it unfolds across the life course with a focus on the interplay of individual acting and social regulation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland's research network for applied studies in social policy, family policy and health policy [grant number 33006].