Moving for a 'better welfare'? The case of transnational Sudanese families

Bibliographic Data

ID4263252
AuthorsEster Serra-Mingot (0000-0002-5399-0672, Department of Society Studies Maastricht University Grote Gracht 90–92 6211SZ Maastricht the Netherlands, corresponding author), Ester Serra Mingot, Valentina Mazzucato (0000-0002-3008-6541, Department of Society Studies Maastricht University Grote Gracht 90–92 6211SZ Maastricht the Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume19
Issue2
Pages139-157
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/glob.12224
OpenAlexW2905736331
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited38

The burgeoning literature on welfare migration, or on the likelihood of migrants moving to countries with more generous welfare states, yields mixed results. In this article, we aim to disentangle what kinds of considerations underlie the decisions that migrants and their families make to address their social protection needs when they move to certain places. We explain how Sudanese extended families, with members scattered across multiple countries, draw on formal and informal institutions to meet their needs for social protection. Through a transnational approach, we analyse the mechanisms guiding the access, circulation and coordination of resources to cover different but related social protection domains. We contribute to current debates on transnational social protection by drawing on the life stories of members of a Sudanese transnational family and by expanding on the concept of 'resource environment'. We based this article on 14 months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Sudanese migrants and their families in the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan

Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Political science · Social protection · Social Welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration