The welfare mobility dilemma. Transnational strategies and national structuring at crossroads

Abstract: The dissertation considers welfare with regard to international mobility and immobility. It addresses a tension between two different conceptualisations of the organisation of everyday life with regard to nation-states: one that views everyday life as relatively mobile across nation-state borders and boundaries, and another that treats everyday life as relatively confined within such limits. The organisation of everyday life is related to welfare and the need to examine three aspects of welfare and im/mobility is identified: (i) welfare with regard to mobility, (ii) welfare with regard to immobility, and (iii) the tension between what are termed the ‘transnational frame’ and the ‘national frame’ of welfare. The transnational frame draws on the transnational turn within migration research, and the national frame on the territorial turn within social policy research. Two research questions are raised from the juxtaposition of these investigative directions: How do transnational and national welfare diverge? and How is social policy constituted by and constitutive of the nation-state? The inquiry has employed extensive reviews of the relevant scholarly literature. Through conceptual and methodological developments, the analyses shed empirical light on the research questions. Generally, the study adds to knowledge about the relation between transnational migration and national welfare states. More specifically, it contributes firstly to an understanding of how the tension between transnational welfare strategies and national structuring can be manifested in the everyday lives of individual and collective transnational actors, and secondly to an understanding of how (Swedish) social policy is constituted by and constitutive of the borders and boundaries of the nation-state. The findings stimulate further reflections on transnational welfare, and a formulation of the ‘transnational social question’ is attempted, as well as proposing two research frontiers to improve the understanding of transnational welfare.