The Ethics of Migrant Welfare

Abstract

International migration poses a dilemma for capitalist welfare states. This paper considers the ethical dimensions of that dilemma. It begins by addressing two questions associated with the provision of social rights for migrants: first, the extent to which differential forms of social citizenship may be associated with processes of civic stratification; second, the ambiguous nature of the economic, social and cultural rights components of the international human rights framework. It then proceeds to discuss, on the one hand, existing attempts to classify or taxonomise different kinds of immigration/incorporation and welfare regime and, on the other, the different ways in which migrants may be socially constructed. Building on this analysis the paper develops an alternative taxonomy that is concerned with the different ethical premises from which the social rights of migrants may be constructed or justified. The paper concludes by applying the ideal of ‘Migration without Borders’ as a means to critique existing constructions of social rights.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• Civic Stratification
• Cultural/Ethnic Difference
• Human Rights
• Immigration
• Incorporation Regimes
• Migrants
• Social Rights
• Welfare Regimes

Notes

¹The penultimate chapter in Titmuss's classic book The Gift Relationship (1970) is entitled ‘Who is my Stranger?’ The moral implication relates to the responsibilities we may collectively assume for other human beings.

²Also, critically, in terms of gender differences as discussed, for example, by Langan and Ostner (1991), Lewis (1992), O'Connor (1993), Orloff (1993) and Sainsbury (1994).

³They additionally provide a basis for intellectual property rights by asserting the right to the protection of the moral and material interests an individual might have in any scientific, literary or artistic work.

⁴I am mindful that there are in some parts of the world other kinds of migrant, including non-territorial, nomadic and Roma peoples, on the one hand, and intra-territorial rural–urban migrants on the other. Elements of the discussion in this paper are also critically relevant to them. I am grateful to Lorenza Antonucci for this point.

⁵There is a distinction to be made between the kind of demonstration of solidarity that is necessary for a migrant to establish citizenship within the republican tradition (see above) and the contractual undertaking necessary to do so within the liberal tradition that applies within settler societies. Both may require symbolic acts (involving ceremonies or oaths), but the meaning, I suggest, is different.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hartley Dean

Hartley Dean is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He initially worked for 12 years as a welfare rights worker in a multi-ethnic inner-London neighbourhood, before moving 25 years ago into teaching and academic research