Migrant organisations, belonging and social protection. The role of migrant organisations in migrants' social risk‐averting strategies
| Published date | 01 August 2023 |
| Author | Karolina Barglowski,Lisa Bonfert |
| Date | 01 August 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13076 |
1Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund,
Germany
2University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette,
Luxembourg
Correspondence
Karolina Barglowski, Maison des Sciences
Humaines, 11, porte des Science,
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Email: karolina.barglowski@uni.lu
Funding information
Mercator Research Center Ruhr
Abstract
This article contributes to the debates on migrant social
protection assemblages by assessing enabling factors
that provide migrants with opportunities to organise their
social protection in changing environments. In-depth inter-
views with migrants who use services from several migrant
organisations (MOs) were conducted to study their largely
neglected roles in social protection practices. Our find-
ings indicate that MOs are important actors in the field of
social protection, as they offer a variety of social services
specifically tailored to migrants' needs, while concomi-
tantly supporting them in developing a sense of belonging.
Specifically, we identify three functions with which they
enable their members to access and accumulate a range of
resources relevant to protecting themselves against basic
social risks: their networking, consulting, and familiarising
functions. In doing so, we also draw attention to the connec-
tions between social protection strategies and evolving
belongingness. Our findings confirm that MOs are multi-
functional and highly responsive to individual needs and are
therefore important actors in the field of social protection.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Migrant organisations, belonging and social
protection. The role of migrant organisations in
migrants' social risk-averting strategies
Karolina Barglowski2 | Lisa Bonfert1
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13076
Received: 19 November 2021 Revised: 21 September 2022 Accepted: 5 October 2022
72 Int Migr. 2023;61:72–87.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2022 The Authors. International Migration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Organization for Migration.
MIGRANT ORGANISATIONS, BELONGING AND SOCIAL PROTECTION73
INTRODUCTION
According to the recent ILO report (2021), social protection is a ‘basic social right’. However, millions of migrants
worldwide face various legal and practical challenges in dealing with social risks that may impede the realisation of
life opportunities and well-being (ILO 2021; Lafleur & Vintila, 2020: 1). International migration tends to exacerbate
vulnerabilities of this kind, especially of those forced to move due to external threats, including war or violent conflicts
(Motte-Baumvol et al., 2022). Migrants are also at high risk of low social protection because “it is often unclear what
services and goods are most appropriate, how they should be provided, and by whom” (IOM, 2019; Motte-Baumvol
et al. 2022: 3). Previous literature, especially in the field of social policy analysis, has provided extensive evidence
of the many barriers that migrants face when protecting themselves against social risks (Eurofound, 2015; Hopkins
et al., 2016; ILO, 2021; Sainsbury, 2006). This study engages in these debates by assessing enabling factors that
provide migrants with opportunities to organise their social protection according to their personal challenges and
needs. From this perspective, scholars have specifically emphasised the role of informal sources of social protection,
including family and kin networks, communities, neighbourhoods, and religious associations, as well as local and
transnational NGOs (Amelina et al., 2020; Dankyi et al., 2017; Faist et al., 2015; Godin, 2020; Lafleur & Vintila, 2020;
Levitt et al., 2017; Mumtaz, 2021; Sabates-Wheeler & Feldman, 2011; Saksela-Bergholm, 2019). In fact, relation-
ships, community ties, and social networks are often equally important components of migrants' social protection
assemblages (Bilecen, 2020; Bilecen & Barglowski, 2015; Boccagni, 2017; Faist et al., 2015). These works emphasise
the agency of migrants to organise their social protection “from below” and show that migrants mobilise resources
from people and institutions in different locations. In addition, they have informed a more fluid understanding of the
boundaries between formal and informal protection and the changes that occur to social protection practices across
time and space (Faist, 2017; Serra Mingot & Mazzucato, 2017). Formal protection provided by government institutions
and organisations is therefore not isolated from individual and collective activities carried out outside this formal-
ised framework. Instead, they interact and complement each other in contingent ways, forming ‘social protection
assemblages’ as relationally connected protective elements negotiated by social actors (Bilecen & Barglowski, 2015).
Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the approaches to organising social protection requires considering not only
the legal aspects of entitlement but also individual encounters with social policy and subjective understandings of
welfare in the context of previous experiences in organising social protection.
In this regard, we argue that the services provided by migrant organisations are inclusive sources of social protec-
tion, as they offer a variety of social services specifically tailored to migrants' needs while concomitantly supporting
them in developing a sense of belonging. We draw on a definition of ‘belonging’ that considers both intimate feel-
ings of ‘being at home’ and broader politics of belonging determining individual processes of forming attachment to
people and places (Antonsich, 2010; Blachnicka-Ciacek et al., 2021; Youkhana, 2015; Yuval-Davis, 2016). Consider-
ing that strategies for averting social risks are shaped by a combination of membership and entitlements, as well as
personal interpretations of welfare and security, individual approaches to managing social risks develop in a strong
connection to shifting notions of belonging in the context of migration experiences. In this way, experiences of (un)
belonging determine the ways people access and use protective resources.
In Germany, like in most other countries in the global North and West, the landscape of welfare has undergone
fundamental changes with a growing emphasis on activation, self-responsibility, and autonomy (Klammer et al., 2017).
Morris (2020) has termed these shifts in welfare logics a “move from solidaristic models of welfare to individualised
responsibility resting on ‘activation’ of the welfare subject” (p. 2) Throughout these processes, the requirements for
individuals to manage social risks have increased, placing issues of choice and autonomy as guiding principles of
social protection schemes. Therefore, welfare states increasingly rely on individual accountability, requiring a proac-
tive ‘welfare subject’ (Morris, 2020) with an aligning ‘welfare habitus’, (Jolivet & Pereira, 2021; Peillon, 1998). The
notion of the ‘welfare habitus’ draws on Bourdieu's habitus concept and refers to a ‘feel for the game’, which shapes
decision-making in social fields (Bourdieu, 1990, cit. in Peillon, 1998: 222) – including in the field of welfare. Since
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