Social protection, gender and international migrations: From national worlds to transnational quests

Abstract

What are the interfaces between migration, social protection and gender? In this chapter, we approach this issue from critical standpoints on gender relations and transnational dynamics. First, we introduce the feminist critique that calls into question the nationalist and masculinist assumptions that characterise the agenda that conceived welfare regimes as "national worlds." Esping-Andersen's framework highlights the relationships between states and markets, relegating the family (and therefore women) to a subsidiary level in the welfare provision and neglecting the importance of the internationalisation of productive and reproductive work. Then, we present the research agenda on transnational social protection (TSP) that emerged from the necessity to understand the new forms of production and (re)distribution of social protection. Finally, from the perspectives on migration and the gendered nature of the labour markets, the circulation of care and the intersectionality of inequalities, we argue that TSP takes the form of a gendered quest, insofar it is only made possible through the continuous, reflexive and risky (often sacrificial) action of women involved in transnational strategies of social protection.