ASTK18447U Migration and the Welfare State

Volume 2024/2025
Education

Full-degree students enrolled at the Department of Political Science, UCPH

MSc in Political Science

MSc in Social Science

MSc in Security Risk Management

 

Full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH 

Master Programme in Psychology

Bachelor and Master Programmes in Anthropology

Bachelor and Master Programmes in Sociology

Master Programme in Global Development

 

The course is open to:

  • Exchange and Guest students from abroad
  • Credit students from Danish Universities
  • Open University students

 

Content

International migration is regularly presented both as a threat and a necessity for contemporary European welfare states. We are used to hearing political arguments about scarce resources and financial burdens of immigration, but also those relating to shrinking and ageing populations and the need for foreign workers. In this course, we disentangle the debate on welfare and migration and explore theoretical and empirical connections between the two, with a focus on the European and Danish context.

 

The course covers the following topics and related theories:

  • The relationship between border control and welfare systems.
  • How welfare institutions and labour markets shape migration flows, and migration policies, and vice versa. Considering for example the welfare magnet theory, welfare states’ reliance on migrant workers, dual labour market theory and demographic change.
  • The often-assumed challenge to welfare states resulting from immigration, in particular arguments about fiscal burdens and declining public support for public provision (the so called ‘progressive dilemma’).
  • How welfare states affect immigrants’ social rights, and the inclusiveness of different types of welfare states.
  • The politics of including and excluding foreigners from social benefits and the notion of ‘welfare chauvinism’, and how this might vary across institutional context.
  • Welfare state challenges and opportunities resulting from emigration in countries of origin.
  • How several of the above issues apply in the context of EU free movement of persons and workers between national welfare states.
Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

Upon completing the course, students should be able to demonstrate:

  • Upon completing the course will have acquired knowledge of:

  • ways in which social policy and socioeconomic institutions and international migration are concretely linked,

  • key theories and concept relating to the relationship between migration and welfare states,

  • strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical perspectives on the relationship between migration and social policy.

 

Skills:

 

This course will help student develop their ability to:

  • critically engage with concepts, theories and real-world political developments relating to citizenship

  • apply theories discussed in the course to real-world examples

  • make consistent and independent arguments orally and in writing

  • discuss and analyse concrete policy problems relating to citizenship

 

Competences:

  • understand and discuss academic literature
  • analytical skills
  • independent and collaborative work
  • oral and written communication

Examples of readings:

 

  • Afonso (2019) Migrant Workers or Working Women? Comparing Labour Supply Policies in Post-War Europe, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 21(3): 251-269
  • Alesina, A. and Glaeser, E. (2004) Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages: Ch 6: ‘Race and Redistribution’.
  • Albrekt Larsen, C. (2020). The institutional logic of giving migrants access to social benefits and services. Journal of European Social Policy, 30(1): 48–62.
  • Banting, K. and Kymlicka, W. (2007) Multiculturalism and the welfare state. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp: 1-30.
  •    Bay, A-H., Finseraas, H. and Pedersen, A. W. (2013) Welfare Dualism in Two Scandinavian Welfare States: Public Opinion and Party Politics, West European Politics, 36(1): 199-220.
  • Bruzelius, C., Reinprecht, C., Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (2017) Stratified Social Rights Limiting EU Citizenship, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 5(6): 1239-1253.
  • Careja R, Elmelund-Praestekaer C, Baggesen Klitgaard M, et al. (2016) Direct and indirect welfare chauvinism as party strategies: an analysis of the Danish People’s Party. Scandinavian Political Studies, 39(4): 435–457.
  • De Jong, P., & De Valk, H. (2019). Intra-European migration decisions and welfare systems: The missing life course link. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46:9, 1773-1791.
  • Freeman, G. P. (1986) Migration and the political economy of the welfare state. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 485 (May): 51–63.
  • Germano, R. (2018) Outsourcing welfare. Oxford, OUP, Ch 1: Remittances and Austerity.
  • Guiraoudon, V. (2000) ’The Marshallian triptych reordered. The role of courts and bureaucracies in furthering migrants’ social rights.’ In M. Bommes and A. Geddes, (eds.) Immigration and Welfare: Challenging the borders of the welfare state. London: Routledge.
  • Kalm, S., and Lindvall, J. (2019). Immigration policy and the modern welfare state, 1880–1920. Journal of European Social Policy, 29(4): 463–477.
  • Kurekova, L. (2013). Welfare Systems as Emigration Factor: Evidence from the New Accession States. Journal of Common Market Studies, 51(4): 721–739.
  • Piperno, F. (2011). The Impact of Female Emigration on Families and the Welfare State in Countries of Origin: The Case of Romania. International Migration 50(5), pp. 189-204.
  • Sainsbury, D. (2006) Immigrants Social Rights in Comparative Perspective. Journal of European Social Policy, 16(3): 229-244.
  • van Hooren, F. J. (2012) Varieties of migrant care work: Comparing patterns of migrant labour in social care, Journal of European Social Policy, 25(5): 489-504.
  • Van Oorschot, W. (2000) Who should get what, and why. Policy and Politics, 28(1): 33-49.
Classes will be very much interactive and will involve lecture-style elements, discussions in smaller and larger groups, group exercises, and lecture-style elements. Each week, we will together critically dissect theories and concepts and apply them to concrete examples
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 28
  • Preparation
  • 78
  • Project work
  • 100
  • Total
  • 206
Written
Oral
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Type of assessment details
Portfolio
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

- In the semester where the course takes place: Free written assignment

- In subsequent semesters: Free written assignment

Criteria for exam assesment

Criteria for exam assessment:

Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings

Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings

Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner