Book Review: Cross-Border Welfare State, Immigration, Social Security and Integration
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
| Author | Freya Semanda |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271401600208 |
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
184 Int ersentia
Gijsbert Vonk (ed.) Cross-Border Welfare State. Immigration, Social S ecurity
and Integration, 2012, Cambridge/Antwerp/Portland: Intersentia, 26 0 pp., ISBN
978–1–78068 –096 –5
is book is concerned with the social security position of non EU migrants and
presents the work of researchers from the Cross-Border Welfare State Resea rch
Programme (2006 –2010). e book is edited by the leader of the programme, Profess or
Dr Gijsbert Vonk from the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen.
e central aim of t he Cross-Border Welfare State Program me was to gain a better
understanding of how law and policies i n the areas of immigration, social security
and civic integration interact. is is important because, as noted by the authors,
immigration pressu res are expected to remain hig h in European countries, giv ing rise
to an increasing focus on t he impact of immigration on the welfare states i n Europe
e book is divided into ve par ts. In Part A, the overall analysis of t he research
ndings of the Cross-Border Welfare State Research Programme is presented. In
their chapter, Vonk and Van Walsum explore the possibil ity of developing alternative
approaches to social protection for excluded migra nts. First, they point to the fact that
all social s ecurity schemes automatically draw a line be tween those who are included
and those who are excluded. is l ine between inclusion and exclusion is not static
but changes over time and the authors explore the underlying forces and patterns of
inclusion and exclusion. Against th is background, they go on to deal with a lternative
approaches to the social protection of those who are excluded through the adoption
of an informal approach to socia l security. e authors show that irregular migr ants
in the Netherlands have, to some extent, been able to secure their needs i n spite of
exclusion from formal social security protection: ‘in focusing on migra nts and the
social relations they a re involved in, the informal approach shows both how migrants
mobilise these relations to meet t heir own needs and how these relations commit
migrants to meeti ng the needs of others’ (page 35). Finally, they propose a new
approach towards the social sec urity position of excluded migrants based upon th ree
main buildi ng blocks: respect for basic human rights, ext ra-territorial responsibilities
for immigrants, a nd international co-operation in the event of return.
Part B contains four chapters on migration and social security. e rst (by
Schoukens and Pieters) examines provisions for the social protection of irreg ular
labour migrants in international law. In the second, by Kapuy, the social sec urity
position of irregular migrant workers is compared to the social security position of
national workers who engage in undeclared work . e third (by Slingenber) examines
state obligations regarding soc ial security for asylum s eekers as set out in international
law and the EU directive on recept ion conditions for asylum seekers. e fourt h, by
Hilbrink, ex plores how the European Cour t of Justice (ECJ) and the Europea n Court
of Human Rights (ECtHR) ba lance individual and public i nterests in cases concerning
income requirements as a condition for fami ly reunication.
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