What causes migrant poverty?Comparative analysis of migrant welfare in EU countries

Abstract

Previous literature on migrants and welfare states tends to focus on the problem

of the sustainability of welfare states under the pressure of globalization

and regard migrants only as those who bring welfare states to a crisis, as a burden

and risk factor for the welfare system. Recent studies have started to challenge

this perspective by shifting their focus from state to migrant. Since Diane

Sainsbury’s seminal work on migrant poverty, scholars have started to look not

on the effect international migration has on the welfare budgets but on the effect

welfare sates have on migrant welfare. Especially, they have started to examine

what makes the cross-national differences in terms of migrants’ poverty

rate as well as the difference between citizens and migrants in terms of their

poverty rate. This article summarizes the results of the recent empirical literature

about migrant poverty in EU countries from the perspective of citizenship

studies and tries to make clear what hypotheses have been proved to be true to

what extent. It argues that the effect of integration policies upon migrant poverty

has not been examined so far and tackles this question by utilizing a recently

developed integration policy index. It then proposes that future study should

explore the relationship among three policy fields — immigration, citizenship

and integration — and examine which is the most decisive factor of migrant

poverty.