Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores the social-protection domain of old-age pensions for Sudanese transnational families. The chapter is based on data collected during 14 months of multi-sited and partly matched-sample ethnographic fieldwork (2015–2017) with 21 Sudanese migrants in the Netherlands, 22 in the UK and 19 of their families in Sudan. Drawing on the life stories of members of different Sudanese families, this contribution addresses the question of what kinds of consideration underlie the decisions of Sudanese migrants when moving to certain places to secure their old-age pension. The chapter shows that the different mobilities in which Sudanese migrants engage have the double aim of both providing for their elderly parents back home now and securing their own pension in the future. The findings question the idea of ‘welfare shopping’ and show that migrants’ decision to move is not based so much on more or less generous welfare states but on the possibilities to arrange their own and their families’ social protection in a manner that is deemed better in the family’s understanding of social protection, which is strongly embedded in practices of generalised reciprocity.

Highlights

  • In recent years, the media, public opinion and political discourses have fed the idea that intra-European migrants are increasingly relying on the welfare states of their host EU country (Giulietti and Wahba 2012)

  • For the purpose of this chapter, transnational social protection (TSP) is understood as the combination of provisions provided by the state, the market, the third sector and family and social networks to protect individuals and families against declining living standards arising from a series of basic risks and needs across the borders of two or more nation states (De Neubourg and Weigand 2000; Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler 2004; Levitt et al 2017)

  • I have analysed the complex mechanisms guiding the decision of Sudanese transnational families to access and circulate certain resources in order to cover for the different old-age needs, and in the future. Such mechanisms have been rendered visible through a transnational perspective and a multi-sited matched-sample methodology, which allowed me to expand the unit of analysis from the individual migrant, as is often done in the social-protection literature, to extended family networks, whose members are scattered across different countries. This has shown that old-age needs take place simultaneously and across different generations

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Summary

13.1 Introduction

The media, public opinion and political discourses have fed the idea that intra-European migrants are increasingly relying on the welfare states of their host EU country (Giulietti and Wahba 2012). A few qualitative studies have pointed to the ‘onward movements’ of some new migrant groups of refugee background – e.g. Somalis and Iranians – from countries with some of the most ‘generous’ welfare states such as the Netherlands, to the UK, where social welfare is less generous (Ahrens et al 2016; Bang-Nielsen 2004; Haandrikman and Hassanen 2014). Many of these ‘onward movers’ first arrived in Europe as refugees and moved to the UK after gaining citizenship of the first country of settlement, which grants them access to all the welfare benefits of that particular state, just like any other citizen. Many decide to move to the UK as EU labour migrants, with all the restrictions this implies

Serra Mingot
13 Securing Old-Age Pensions Across Borders
13.2 Mobile Populations in Immobile Welfare Systems
13.2.1 Growing Old Across Borders
13.2.2 Aging in Sudan
13.3 Data and Methods
13.4 Catering for Old-Age Needs Across Borders and Generations
13.4.1 Providing for One’s Parents Pension
13.4.2 Arranging One’s Own Pension
Findings
13.5 Conclusions
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