Migration and social protection in Europe: comparing consular services and diaspora policies

In spite of the growing literature on sending states’ engagement with their populations abroad, little is known so far about their role in helping the diaspora deal with social risks. As argued in this introductory chapter, this is mainly because past studies on sending states’ policies and institutions for the diaspora fail to systematically focus on social protection, while also ignoring that regional integration dynamics often constrain domestic responses towards the welfare-related needs of nationals residing abroad. This volume aims to fill this research gap by comparatively examining the type of diaspora infrastructure through which EU Member States address the vulnerability faced by populations abroad in five core areas of welfare: healthcare, pensions, family, unemployment and economic hardship. Drawing on data from two original surveys with national experts, we operationalize the concepts of hard infrastructure for non-residents (i.e. the presence of diaspora-related institutions) and soft infrastructure (i.e. policies that provide and facilitate access to welfare for nationals abroad) in order to propose a new typology of states’ engagement with their diaspora in the area of social protection.