Mobile populations in immobile welfare systems: a typology of institutions providing social welfare and protection arrangements within a mobility framework

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the full range of providers of social protection for mobile populations, from highly formalised private providers, to semi-formal, to informal social networks, highlighting the basic principles on which the schemes are based, the people to whom they cater, the domains they cover and their main advantages and disadvantages.Design/methodology/approach: Using a transnational lens, this paper reviews literature from different disciplinary backgrounds in order to offer a typology of institutions providing social protection within a mobility framework.Findings: Need to identify and examine the emergence and functioning mechanisms of semi-formal institutions in the provision of social protection across borders, as well as to analyse the synergy between informal/semi-formal and formal social protection systems.