The Immigration-Emigration Nexus in Non-EU Sending States: A Focus on Welfare Entitlements, Consular Services, and Diaspora Policies

Abstract

Migrants’ access to social benefits has been intensively studied in the European Union, but less scholarly attention has been dedicated to the way in which non-EU welfare regimes adapt to international mobility. This chapter introduces a volume that aims to address this research gap by taking the perspective of non-EU states on migrant social protection. To do so, our analysis focuses on 13 countries: Argentina, China, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Serbia, Senegal, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, Tunisia, and Turkey. These countries represent relevant sending states for migrants coming to the EU, with some of them also hosting sizeable immigrant populations. We argue that their different migration characteristics (including the size and main features of their immigrant and diaspora populations) as well as the peculiarity of their welfare regimes (which often followed a quite distinctive historical path of development compared to their EU counterparts) may shape their responsiveness in terms of ensuring migrants’ access to domestic welfare systems.