Abstract
This article conceptualises the notion of “social investment’ within the context of social protection and active labour market policies. This paradigm is confronted to the neoliberal ‘making work pay’ paradigm and the conservative workfare doctrine build on the idea that a stronger work ethos needs to be inculcated through reduced rights and more duties. The social investment paradigm advocates generous social protection combined with enabling investments and is thus perfectly congruent with social inclusion objectives. The empirical analysis shows remarkably small effects of both types of policies in the past 15 years: ALMPs have had small positive effects on employment, but also on exits into inactivity. The most positive employment effect of ALMPs is a redistribution of employment opportunities towards older, female and less educated groups. The Re-inVEST research analyses in-depth participatory case studies of policies targeting disadvantaged groups in different European countries, using an ‘enriched’ social investment model, building on a human rights and capabilities approach. The findings indeed show very wide differences in quality – and a lot of room for improvement. In order to improve their effectiveness as well as inclusiveness, the right to decent ALMPs should be put on the policy agenda.
Highlights
This paper aims to develop the concept of social investment in the context of labour market integration, building on a human rights and capabilities approach
One of the work packages of the Re-InVEST research aimed to re-assess European labour market policies from a social investment perspective (Lehweß-Litzmann & Nicaise, 2018a-b; Lehweß-Litzmann & Nicaise, 2020)
We found some commonalities that allow us to draw relevant lessons for labour market policies in Europe, from the perspective of vulnerable groups
Summary
The idea of the ‘active welfare state’ dates back to the post-war period in the Nordic countries, but conquered the rest of Europe during the 1980s, as the traditional welfare state got off-track. The discourse on the active welfare state diversified under the influence of various ideologies. Whereas all Western governments agreed on the need for more active labour market policies, neoliberal governments put more emphasis on ‘incentives’; conservatives on duties and individual responsibility; while social-democrats tend to use a rights discourse and justify their approach in terms of social investment. This paper aims to develop the concept of social investment in the context of labour market integration, building on a human rights and capabilities approach. It draws lessons with regard to quality criteria for labour market integration services
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