Reconciling transnational mobility and national social security: what say the welfare state bureaucrats?

ABSTRACT

The welfare state was constructed to ensure the well-being of a sedentary population, consisting of citizens living within the territorial boundaries of the nation. However, mobility patterns change, and more people lead lives that criss-cross national borders while drawing on different sources of transnational social protection – the welfare state included. Now, the daily work of bureaucrats involves delivering national social security benefits to transnationally mobile recipients. Through encounters and casework processes, these welfare state bureaucrats observe how ‘transnationals’ deal with complex regulations and make use of the social security system. This article explores bureaucrats’ perceptions of individuals’ agency and behaviour as they reconcile their transnational mobility with national social security. It builds on data collected during ethnographic fieldwork in the Norwegian welfare administration, including 36 interviews, participant observation and informal conversations. The analysis identifies an institutional perspective of transnationals’ agency as shaped by their level of regulatory awareness and compliance. The bureaucrats observe some types of transnational behaviour to be more prevalent than others. As the article concludes, these bureaucratic perspectives have major implications for transnational social security delivery and how the welfare state accommodates transnational mobility.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnationalism
• mobility
• transnational social protection
• welfare state
• social security

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Cathrine Talleraas http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3293-3449

Notes

1. On-going research projects on transnational mobility and national social security include Mobile Welfare in a Transnational Europe: An Analysis of Portability Regimes of Social Security Rights (TRANSWEL) led by Anna Amelina; Transnational Lives in the Welfare State (TRANSWEL) led by Jørgen Carling; Migrants’ Welfare State Attitudes (MIFARE) led by Marcel Lubbers; Transnational Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities (TRANSMIC) led by Hildegard Schneider; Migration for Welfare (WELLMIG) led by Marie Louise Seeberg; and European Welfare Systems in Times of Mobility (MobileWelfare) led by Helga de Valk.

2. The official Norwegian names of these units, respectively, are NAV Internasjonalt, Arbeids- og velferdsdirektoratet; NAV Kontroll; NAV Kontaktsenter Utland; Grensetjenesten; NAV Pensjon; NAV Forvaltning; and NAV-kontor. All interviews were conducted in Norwegian.

3. The interview excerpts are translations by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway (Norges Forskningsråd) under Grant [236962].