Suchergebnisse

Immigrants' precarious labour market situation has received attention from academic scholars and policy makers alike. As a consequence of their weak labour market attachment, immigrants are more likely to be dependent on public transfers in order to be able to achieve a decent standard of living. This dependency on transfers has also raised concern amongst policy makers, who increasingly started promoting policy measures to push immigrants into the labour market. These policies are often accompanied by a lowering of certain benefits, aimed at increasing the incentives to work. This article addresses immigrants' and ethnic minorities' labour market and income situation in three countries: Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. These countries are characterized by different welfare and labour market institutions; a comparative approach allows to see whether there are important differences between the countries. The results show a considerable employment gap between immigrants and non-immigrants in all three countries. Results of the logistic regression indicate that having an immigrant background decreases the probability of being employed. None of the welfare regimes is successful in offering immigrants equal labour market opportunities compared to natives. The same holds for poverty, migrants face a bigger risk to be poor than natives.

Although the poverty rates among solo mothers vary a lot between countries there is one common feature: solo mothers perform worse in terms of financial resources compared to married or cohabiting mothers. Even in countries with low poverty rates in general, the differences in income between solo mothers and married/cohabiting mothers remain and are significant. It is interesting to ask the question why? Again referring to a cross national setting we see that poverty rates vary widely between countries and this raises the hypothesis that different factors play a role in determining solo mothers' economic well being. In this paper the main question is: What is preventing Swedish and Belgian solo mothers from poverty? Sweden and Belgium are interesting to look at for several reasons. Looking at the poverty rates for solo mothers in both countries, we see that they are low compared to many other countries. Sweden in 1992 and Belgium in 1990 had poverty rates for solo mothers of 3.8% (Hobson and Takahashi, 1997) and 8% (Bradshaw, 1996a) whereas the poverty rates for solo mothers in some other European countries were much higher: The Netherlands (20.9%)(1991) Germany (41%) (1990) United Kingdom (58%) (1990)2. Although both countries have relatively low poverty rates for solo mothers, they do not have the same type of social policies. If we take Esping-Andersen's typology of welfare regimes (1990) as a point of reference we find two different welfare regimes. Sweden is defined as a social democratic welfare state and Belgium as a conservative/corporatist welfare state. 3. One would expect the latter to be more orientated towards the male breadwinner ideology with worse outcomes for women without male breadwinner, This is apparently not the case for solo mothers in Belgium. All this makes it interesting to look at these two countries. Is public policy the main reason for the low poverty rates and how can it be explained that different policies have almost the same outcomes?

This article examines the income maintenance policies of several members of the European Union and three candidate countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It addresses the issue of the effectiveness of these policies and especially means-tested safety nets in alleviating poverty. To assess the effectiveness of the policies, we use data from the Luxembourg Income Study. We analyse the incidence of poverty based on the EU poverty line and poverty reduction for the entire population and vulnerable groups - the unemployed, solo mothers, large families, and the elderly. During the 1990s the poverty rates increased in most countries and for most vulnerable groups. Means-tested benefits assumed growing importance in alleviating poverty, and several countries have improved their schemes to guarantee a minimum income. At the same time reforms have produced diversity in the safety nets across Europe.

Using the notion of the poverty regime as a heuristic device, this paper examines the safety nets of several members of the European Union and three candidate countries: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It addresses two board issues: 1) Has there been a convergence in the safety nets of these member countries of the European Union during the 1990s? 2) What are the implications of enlargement of the European Union for the creation of a common safety net? Initially several dimensions of the poverty regime are employed to compare the safety nets. Subsequently we analyze the incidence of poverty and poverty reduction for the entire population and vulnerable groups-the unemployed, solo mothers and large families, and the elderly-in the countries using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. In analyzing poverty reduction effectiveness we utilize both relative and absolute measures to gauge the impact of income maintenance policies, distinguishing between the safety net and other transfers. The analysis reveals that during the 1990s the poverty rate increased in most countries and in many instances for vulnerable groups; an exception was the elderly. Means tested benefits assumed growing importance in alleviating poverty, but reforms also produced diversity in the safety nets across Europe. Contrary to earlier theorizing that means tested benefits are marginalized in the social democratic welfare state regime, we find that the safety nets in these countries often equaled or surpassed that of the UK in reducing poverty. Finally, apart from impressive poverty reduction, the policies of the three candidate countries did not form a distinctive poverty regime. Instead they tended to cluster with other member countries.

AbstractCurrent migration studies and policy reviews neglect the vital link between migration experiences of labour migrants and their return and reintegration process. The objective of this study is to highlight the phenomenon and bring the matter to policy makers' attention. This study uses in‐depth interviews and a series of focus group discussions to explore the relationship between migration experiences and economic reintegration of unskilled Ethiopian women who are return migrants from Middle Eastern countries. Economic reintegration, which in its basic form is about securing a livelihood, is a challenge for most returnees. The reason relates to the migration settings, preparedness and reintegration assistance in the home county. Reintegration assistance for involuntary returnees is beneficial only for those who manage to obtain some savings out of their migration. The findings imply the need for policy improvements regarding the working conditions of female domestic workers in the host countries and reintegration programmes in the home countries.