Cargando…
Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state
Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken st...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Netherlands
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5684041/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29180941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-017-0431-6 |
_version_ | 1783278393709559808 |
---|---|
author | Böcker, Anita Hunter, Alistair |
author_facet | Böcker, Anita Hunter, Alistair |
author_sort | Böcker, Anita |
collection | PubMed |
description | Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by providing lifelong income security for older migrants who return to countries of origin on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. This article asks what motivated policymakers to initially develop these novel policy tools for transnational ageing which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state. Based on interviews with key stakeholders and available official documents, we find that in both France and the Netherlands, policymakers’ initial motivations can be characterised as rather benign, if not beneficent: to facilitate return for those who are willing but unable to afford it. However, two types of obstacle have impeded the delivery of such policies. Non-discrimination clauses and free movement rights in EU law may make it difficult to implement policies for specific categories of older migrants. Electoral realpolitik may also lead policymakers to shelve policies which benefit older migrants, in a European context where public opinion on immigration is less and less favourable. Nonetheless, opposition may be neutralised by the budgetary advantages of these schemes, since older returnees do not consume public services such as healthcare. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5684041 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-56840412017-11-27 Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state Böcker, Anita Hunter, Alistair Eur J Ageing Original Investigation Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by providing lifelong income security for older migrants who return to countries of origin on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. This article asks what motivated policymakers to initially develop these novel policy tools for transnational ageing which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state. Based on interviews with key stakeholders and available official documents, we find that in both France and the Netherlands, policymakers’ initial motivations can be characterised as rather benign, if not beneficent: to facilitate return for those who are willing but unable to afford it. However, two types of obstacle have impeded the delivery of such policies. Non-discrimination clauses and free movement rights in EU law may make it difficult to implement policies for specific categories of older migrants. Electoral realpolitik may also lead policymakers to shelve policies which benefit older migrants, in a European context where public opinion on immigration is less and less favourable. Nonetheless, opposition may be neutralised by the budgetary advantages of these schemes, since older returnees do not consume public services such as healthcare. Springer Netherlands 2017-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5684041/ /pubmed/29180941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-017-0431-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Original Investigation Böcker, Anita Hunter, Alistair Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title | Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title_full | Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title_fullStr | Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title_full_unstemmed | Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title_short | Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
title_sort | legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state |
topic | Original Investigation |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5684041/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29180941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-017-0431-6 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT bockeranita legislatingfortransnationalageingachallengetothelogicsofthewelfarestate AT hunteralistair legislatingfortransnationalageingachallengetothelogicsofthewelfarestate |