Immigrants and poverty, and conditionality of immigrants’ social rights

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Series Details Volume 28, Number 5, Pages 452-470
Publication Date December 2018
ISSN 0958-9287 (print) | 1461-7269 (online)
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Abstract:

It is not only immigration and the incorporation of immigrants into society that serve as challenges for post-industrialised countries, but also rising inequality and poverty. This article focuses on both issues and proposes a new theoretical perspective on the determinants of immigrant poverty.

Building on comparative welfare state research and international migration literature, the author argues that immigrants’ social rights – here understood as their access to paid employment and welfare benefits – condition the impact which both the labour market and welfare system have on immigrants’ poverty.

The empirical analysis is based on a newly collected dataset on immigrants’ social rights in 19 advanced industrialised countries. The findings confirm the hypotheses: more regulated minimum wage setting institutions and generous traditional family programmes reduce immigrants’ poverty more strongly in countries where they are granted easier access to paid employment and social benefits.

Source Link Link to Main Source https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928717753580
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