Immigration and the modern welfare state

The case of USA and Germany

authored by

Uwe Wenzel, Mathias Bös

Abstract

Increasing migration has led to extensive discussion of the definition of membership within a nation-state. This article presents a comparison of the inclusion of migrants into welfare programmes in the USA and in Germany. In the first part of the article a brief overview is provided of immigration categories in both countries in order to demonstrate the relevance of these administrative regulations for the opportunities of individual migrants to participate in the welfare system. In the second part we elaborate in more detail on how welfare programmes have developed as basic mechanisms to include or exclude migrants. Our findings illustrate an increasing differentiation of membership statuses parallel to the expansion of modern welfare systems. In both the USA and Germany, the territorial principle and participation in the labour market are of prime importance to the access to social rights. In both cases all migrants may profit from contributory programmes.

External Organisation(s)

Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT)
Heidelberg University

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Volume

23

Pages

537-548

No. of pages

12

ISSN

1369-183X

Publication date

1997

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Demography, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.1997.9976610 (Access: Closed)