Immigration, Labour Market and Welfare State: Different Articulations in Europe and the Case of Southern Countries
Miguel Laparra
Department of Social Work, Public University of Navarre, Pamplona, Navarre, Spain

Migration systems have been differently articulated with welfare and employment regimes across Europe. The characteristics of each system (flows intensity; proportion of irregular immigration; type of migration: labour, family reunification or asylum; naturalisation) could be related to the migrant's performance in the labour market (in the context of any specific employment regime) and also to the level and the different ways the welfare states are recognizing social rights to immigrants. The outcome of these articulations between immigration, labour market and welfare state is expected to be different in terms of cohesion and social exclusion.

We will focus on Southern Europe, in contrast to other European migration systems, which has experienced the intensification of immigrant's flow since the mid-1990s reaching a very relevant position as one of the main destinations during the first decade of 21^st century: A new migratory model has been built in Europe. This model presents very specific characteristics: the intensity of (partly) irregular immigration flows, the type of migration (labour migration for low qualified jobs more than reunification or asylum) and the migrant's performance in the labour market (higher employment rate than the host society durind the periods of economic growth). As a result, the case of Spain could be a good example of a very fast social integration process for most immigrants, but also with a significant proportion affected by poverty and social exclusion.

We will present some analysis, based on international statistics (Eurostat and OECD), but also on national statistics, trying to demonstrate the rational of these different articulations.

Biography: Miguel Laparra, PhD in Sociology, is Director of the Department of Social Work and Director of ALTER Research Group (Public University of Navarre). His recent research is about Social Exclusion, Social Policies, Social Services, Employment, Immigration and Roma studies. Recently publications: El impacto de la crisis en la cohesiόn social... (Documentaciόn Social, 158/2010), Spanish Gitanos, Romani migrants and European Roma identity: (re)unification or self-affirmation? (Palgrave, 2009), La Exclusiόn social en España (Foessa, 2008), Southern Europe in the mirror of European traditional immigration countries (Italian Journal of Social Policy 1/2008), La construcciόn del empleo precario (Foessa 2007).