Les dynamiques sociologiques entre contrôle des migrations et protection sociale : femmes migrantes sans papiers en quête d’hébergement à Paris

What is it about?

This article aims to bypass polarized debates that either accuse migrants of abusing state forms of social protection or accuse states of excluding migrants from welfare provisions. It seeks to do so by analysing the intersection of formal social protection, i.e. social services provided by the state, and informal social protection, i.e. support mechanisms among family and social networks. The article draws on a study of the shelter arrangements of two groups of migrant women from Western Africa encountered in Paris in 2013: one group worked in elderly care and the other stayed in welfare hotels, but also found themselves implicated in care work. By exploring the operational dynamics of welfare hotels, the article illustrates how formal social protection schemes can isolate migrant women from their social networks. This control dimension of mechanisms of formal social protection unfolds in a context where it is mostly migrant women who respond to the demand for care labour that has emerged as Europe’s population is aging and the share of women who participate on the formal labour market has risen. The article concludes by stressing the need to think about the social protection for migrants and citizens in a way that allows both for informal and transnational protection mechanisms.

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