PhD Partnership in Global Social Protection Transnational Studies Initiative – Harvard University
PhD Partnership in Global Social Protection Transnational Studies Initiative – Harvard University
The world is on the move. One out of every thirty-three persons is a migrant. There are an estimated 214 million international migrants worldwide, up from 150 million in 2000. On the one hand, migrants provide a low-cost and flexible workforce for receiving countries that helps counteract declines in the labor force due to an aging native-born population. On the other hand, migrant remittances may make important contributions to sending country development that, in some cases, far exceed international aid and are often used to compensate for state retraction from public services and social benefits. Yet migration also has costs. Some of them—including the impact of “brain drain” and an overreliance on migration and remittances in sending countries, or the effects of migration on employment and wages in receiving nations—are well researched. Other costs, especially those associated with social reproduction and social protection, have not been sufficiently studied. Where and how will people on the move be protected and provided for? What new institutional arrangements, or forms of global social protection (GSP), are emerging? How might these developments affect the ability and willingness of nation-states to provide social welfare to citizens and non-citizens?
The Transnational Studies Initiative (TSI) at Harvard University will begin to work on these topics during the upcoming academic year. We will host a monthly seminar series and a small conference where participants will take stock of the current state-of-the-art of GSP and chart an agenda for the future. Our goal is to develop collaborative research that will help move pieces of this agenda forward.
