Abstract
Keywords
This book edited by Jenny Phillimore is an anthology of previously published articles dealing with issues of migration and social policy. Considering the controversial events presently occurring on both sides of the Atlantic, such as changes in the general public’s attitudes towards migrants and burgeoning speculations about burdens ostensibly imposed by the increasing flows of migrants on the welfare states, the mission of this book to disentangle the complicated relations between migration and social policy is especially needful and praiseworthy.
The first impression made by the appearance of this volume is not, however, overly auspicious. The cover is not particularly pleasing to the eye and the image of the back of a man walking away from the observer sends a rather equivocal message that would have benefited from elucidation in the introduction. Each chapter is printed in a different format, including fonts, spaces and the number of columns per page. This negatively affects the book’s presentation, making it look untidy and disorderly. More important, some chapters (e.g. Chapters 6, 21 and 35) use such a small font that it makes them arduous to read with the naked eye. The absence of name and subject indexes complicates navigation through just under 800 pages. Unfortunately, the book does not offer much information about the contributors. Overall, it feels that the design leaves a lot to be desired.
In spite of that, the content of the book is more than sufficiently engrossing to disregard these blemishes. The volume consists of 38 book chapters divided into five parts. It opens with the introduction written by the editor, Jenny Phillimore, which is fascinating reading in itself. It sheds light on the evolution of relations between migration and social policy, as well as on present challenges and tensions, which is further expanded in the rest of the book. Nonetheless, the opening message could perhaps have done a better job articulating the objectives of this book and the logic behind the selection of the materials.
Part I addresses issues of diversity and inequality, associated with growing flows of international migration, in the social welfare system. The chapters in this section emphasize the need for more explicit attention to the delicate matters of race, ethnicity, culture and belonging in social policy. Using fascinating examples from the present and the past, as well as empirical findings, these chapters seek to illuminate the increasing heterogeneity of Western societies and, ultimately, to answer (somewhat rhetorical) questions of why we should be concerned about inclusion of migrants and ethnic minority groups in social policy scholarship.
The second part opens with an excursion into the various responses to migration, with a focus predominantly on multiculturalism as the approach most prominent in developed English-speaking countries and Northern Europe. It then proceeds to examine the extremely timely topic of access to social services and welfare, which migrants might be granted or denied. The authors scrutinize how media, public opinion and political discourses generate and reinforce institutional racism and welfare chauvinism defining what groups of migrants are perceived as deserving such access and what groups are subjected to restrictions and exclusion.
The third part deals with the outcomes of complex, dynamic and bi-dimensional relations between migration and social policy. The chapters in this section utilize empirical findings to illustrate the gap between rhetoric and reality. They argue that migrants do not put as much pressure on the welfare system as the public discourses speculate. In contrast, social exclusion, limited access to information and discrimination present considerable challenges to migrants’ incorporation into the host society. As a result, migrants experience difficulties in all main areas of integration – health problems, poor housing conditions, low return to education and underemployment.
Part IV aims to review integration of migrants. Although calling for radical institutional changes to promote integration policies and foster engagement of migrants into the wider society, this section also acknowledges the role migrants play in welfare provision. It also places emphasis upon the ‘brain drain’ and its damaging effect on the sending countries. The fifth and concluding part offers more insights into the dilemmas faced by welfare systems in conditions of growing diversity and advocates reflexive practices as a modus operandi to tackle the identified tensions.
The editor has undisputedly succeeded in her endeavour to convey an enthralling and holistic narrative that captures the multidimensionality and dynamism of interactions between migration and social policy. The book most certainly makes a valuable contribution by putting these materials together and offering a comprehensive vision of problems in this domain. There are, nonetheless, some queries left. The answers to some of them seem rather obvious, but perhaps could have been addressed in the introduction. Some other questions are deeper and require more serious attention and further research.
First, the reasons for selecting particular pieces for this anthology remain nebulous. The volume is dominated by the UK-based studies. However, there are two other significant clusters focused on Europe, and the United States and Canada respectively. A smaller group of chapters is engaged in cross-country comparison either within Europe or between European and North American states. If the intention was to focus on the UK, then the rationale for including the other chapters is less clear. If the purpose was to generate a broader picture of migration and social policy in the Western world, then there is a lack of balance between the attention devoted to the UK and the rest of the world. Reflecting on Phillimore’s observation that social changes caused by migration are commencing in China, Russia, India and Brazil (p. xxii), it is surprising to discover that none of these countries are represented in the book.
It is appreciated that the editor had to choose from already available chapters and articles, and none of them had been written specially for this volume. The choice, therefore, was understandably limited. Yet, it is remarkable that only one-third of the manuscripts used in the anthology have been published in the present decade. This is even more surprising considering that ‘one of the differences of exploring the relation between migration and social policy is the rapidly changing political environment’ (Lewis, Ch. 1, p. 3). It can also be argued that for the same reason Lewis’s own article may not be the ideal choice to start the main body of the book. Despite its undeniable merit, this piece was published in 2003 and therefore does not consider the substantial changes that have happened in the UK, European and global landscape. One can think, for example, of the expansions of the European Union in 2004, 2007 and 2013, and the subsequent waves of immigration to the UK, or the substantial changes in the UK’s immigration law (2012), leaving aside the rise of populism in Western societies and the Brexit referendum in 2016. These issues and their influence appear overlooked by this volume.
Finally, the book emphasizes the tensions between migration and social policy, their impacts upon each other and outcomes, as well as the political and public rhetoric surrounding these issues. However, Parts IV and V, which discuss possible ways to deal with these tensions, are confined to only four chapters (in fact, just three given that Chapter 37 is devoted to the ‘brain drain’). It is beyond any doubt that there is no panacea for issues of this kind. Yet, it would have been helpful to include more material on what could and should be done to address existing problems. Alternatively, it would have been useful for the editor to summarize the chief arguments in the book and outline avenues for further action for academics and policy makers.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned limitations, this book should be celebrated by the community interested in social policy and migration. The importance of the topic is beyond question and the materials included in the anthology will appeal to a broad audience. It will be of interest to students studying the relevant disciplines, as well as more experienced researchers and policy makers. Although it does not attempt to offer a solution, the book excels at illuminating the problems in relationships between migration and social policy, and at highlighting the urgent need to undertake more concrete steps in this direction.