Methodology and approach

The project is arranged into three interrelated work packages that each focus on an important dimension of welfare systems in connection to migration. IMI will lead Work Package II.

Work Package I will explore how current welfare state arrangements may shape mobility patterns in Europe through the analysis of secondary data related to the analysis of migration flows and stock data, as well as social expenditure in countries of origin and destination.

Work Package II aims at understanding the role of perceptions of welfare provisions in the formation of mobility aspirations and in the migration decision making processes through analysing previously collected data and collection of new primary qualitative data.

Work Package III focuses on how access to (e.g. education and health care) and transferability of welfare benefits (e.g. pensions) is perceived and put in practice by mobile citizens within Europe by combining analysis of existing legislation and policy with the analyses of existing survey data on the use of welfare as well as individual perceptions of transferability of support.

In the final year of the project, linkages and intersections between the work packages will be further explored and major implications for theory on European welfare states in times of mobility will be presented both to a scientific and policy audience. Findings will be translated into journal articles for an international audience in high tier journals over the project period.