Dear Colleagues (apologies for cross-posting),

We warmly invite paper proposals for our stream 19 ‘The Politics of Migration and Social Protection in the EU’ at the 2018 ESPAnet Conference 'Transformation of European welfare systems: challenges, problems and future prospects’.

The conference will take place 30 August-1 September 2018 in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the deadline for the paper proposals is 19 March 2018.

Stream description:

Migration to and within the EU has become one of the most salient and contested issues in the EU. Core concerns are those associated with migration and social protection. The real and imagined challenges and opportunities that migration poses for territorially bounded social systems is evident in discourses on fiscal gains and burdens, welfare magnet effects, race to the bottom/social dumping, and the like. Phenomena like ‘Brexit’ has made evident that the political tensions arising at least in part from these sorts of concerns are to be taken seriously.

The issue matter is highly complex: social protection and migration are issues that relate to migration policy, the specificities of social protection systems and national labour markets, as well as other policy fields. This complexity is interpreted, conveyed and employed differently by different actors at different levels in the system of multi-level governance that constitutes the EU. Accordingly, also policy responses to these questions may vary at different levels

This stream seeks to bring together papers addressing the broad topic of politics of migration and social protection at different levels in the EU. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

What is the nature and determinants of politicisation of migration and welfare?
How do differences between different categories of migrants, and specifics of welfare states and social policies, matter to the politics of social protection and migration?
What policy outcomes of the politics of migration and social protection can be distinguished?
What (different) patterns of public opinion can be found within the EU (member states) on topics like migration, social protection and welfare, and how does it relate to associated politics?

Abstracts should be about 500 words and can be submitted online under the following link: http://www.espanetvilnius2018.fsf.vu.lt/conference/submit-abstract

Successful authors will be informed by 16 April 2018.

Best regards,

Stream convenors:

Cecilia Bruzelius and Mikko Kuisma (Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen)

Dr. Mikko Kuisma / Research Fellow in Comparative Public Policy / Managing Editor of the Journal of European Social Policy / Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen / Institute of Political Science / Research Unit Comparative Public Policy / Melanchthonstr. 36 / 72074 Tübingen / Germany / T: +49-(0)7071-29-72925 / E: [log in to unmask] / www.mikkokuisma.com / www.twitter.com/DrMKuisma / www.researchgate.net/profile/Mikko_Kuisma