Immigration and Social Policy in Latin America

• In Event: Immigration, Documentation, and Social Protection in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper studies unequal access to social services and income between immigrants and nationals in Latin America. Much attention has been paid to the degree to which immigrants are incorporated to welfare states in the Global North, but the Global South has been overlooked.
To what extent do different states in Latin America protect immigrants from sickness, old age, and poverty? How do legal status and incorporation to the labor market affect immigrants’ access to social policies? This paper aims to answer these questions through an analysis of the main transfers and services in three Latin American countries—Argentina, Chile, and the Dominican Republic—and the incorporation of immigrants with different legal statuses to their social policies. It combines original qualitative coding of legislation and policy documents with fieldwork. It argues that countries with stronger presence of left parties with linkages to social movements will be more inclusive of immigrants in their design of policies. Barriers at the moment of implementation are related to the legacies of policies. In other words, the behavior of street-level bureaucrats may not change after a change in government or pressure from social movements.

Author

• Sara Niedzwiecki, University of California, Santa Cruz