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A sledgehammer to crack a nut: deportation, detention and dispersal in Europe
- Author:
- SCHUSTER Liza
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 39(6), December 2005, pp.606-621.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Since the increase in the numbers of asylum-seekers arriving in Europe in the early 1990s, European countries of asylum have been implementing new and increased controls over entry and making conditions more difficult for asylum-seekers while they are waiting for a decision on their case. This paper explores the ways in which four European asylum regimes use the deportation, detention and dispersal of asylum-seekers in an attempt to control and exclude them from national societies and territories. Germany, France, Italy and the UK have different migration histories and have introduced different asylum policies at different times; but all have in common the increasingly draconian response to asylum-seekers since the 1990s. The paper looks at the stated rationale for introducing and extending dispersal, deportation and detention. EU governments have introduced these measures, arguing that they will deter "fraudulent" asylum claims. While the number of claims has fallen in the last five years to the lowest level since 1988, there is no evidence that this is due to such policies. It is clear, however, that these policies penalize all asylum-seekers, breach their human rights, damage the receiving societies as a whole, and as such should be abandoned.
A fistful of euros: is the German one-euro job workfare scheme effective for participants?
- Authors:
- HOHMEYER Katrin, WOLFF Joachim
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 21(2), April 2012, pp.174-185.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In Germany, a major welfare reform in 2005 emphasised the activation of welfare recipients and introduced a workfare programme, called ‘One-Euro Jobs’. One-euro jobs are temporary, mainly part-time jobs in the non-profit sector. Since their introduction, their use has been widespread, with over 600,000 participants a year. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of one-euro jobs on the employment prospects of different groups of participants. The study analysed administrative data from the German Federal Employment Agency for one-euro job participants aged 15-62 years who started their participation in the programme in early 2005, compared to a control group of other welfare recipients. The results showed that participation slightly improved the medium-term employment prospects for women but not for men. Participation reduced the employment rate of participants younger than 25 years but raised it for some of the older participant groups. The article concludes that one-euro jobs are effective for participants who have been jobless for several years but ineffective for participants who were recently employed.
Marketization in higher education policy: an analysis of higher education funding policy reforms in Western Europe between 1980 and 2000
- Author:
- DOLENEC Danijela
- Journal article citation:
- Revija Za Socijalnu Politiku Journal of Social Policy, 13(1), 2006, pp.15-34.
- Publisher:
- University of Zagreb
The main objective of this study is establishing patterns of higher education funding policy change in seven countries of Western Europe (Sweden, Norway, the UK, Ireland, France, and Germany) in the period from 1980's to 2000. Patterns of change are traced using the typology of welfare state regimes developed by Esping-Andersen (1990). The main assumption is that key institutional features of welfare regime govern reform trajectories in higher education funding policies. The study shows that regularities within regimes do exist, and they broadly conform to the welfare regime typology. However countries do not completely conform to the types. This is partly due to the deficiency of an ideal-type classification, but more importantly it seems due to the fact that higher education funding policy cannot be fully explained by using the social policy lens. [Article in Croatian].
Similar problems, divergent responses: drug consumption room policies in the UK and Germany
- Author:
- LLOYD Charlie
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Substance Use, 22(1), 2017, pp.66-70.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) enable the consumption of pre-obtained drugs under supervised conditions. While 24 DCRs exist in Germany, there are none in the UK despite similar levels of drug-related harms. The first official, German DCRs were introduced in Hamburg and Frankfurt in the mid-1990s. A key influence was the appearance of “open drug scenes” in such cities over this time, whereby large numbers of users congregated in parks or shopping centers. This led to powerful coalitions of politicians, police, and treatment agencies and DCRs were seen as a professional response to these problems. In the UK, there have been two high-profile recommendations for the piloting of DCRs, which have been rejected by the government for a number of reasons, including lack of evidence, legal problems, and negative media responses. In explaining the different situations in the two countries, key factors are the potential for city-level policies, the stigma attached to drug users in media reporting, and the historical development of open drug scenes. Chance has also played a part, particularly in the UK. Drug policy is rarely a government priority, and drug policy decisions are therefore affected by wider political goals and pressures in unpredictable ways. (Publisher abstract)
Towards Neo-Bismarckian health care states? Comparing health insurance reforms in Bismarckian welfare systems
- Authors:
- HASSENTEUFEL Patrick, PALIER Bruno
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 41(6), December 2007, pp.574-596.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Germany, France and the Netherlands all have specific ‘Bismarckian’ health insurance systems, which encounter different and specific problems (and solutions) from those of national health systems. Following a relatively similar trajectory, the three systems have gone through important changes: they now combine universalization through the state and marketization based on regulated competition; they associate more state control (directly or through agencies) and more competition and market mechanisms. Competition between insurers has gained importance in Germany and the Netherlands and the state is reinforcing its controlling capacities in France and Germany. Up to now, continental health insurance systems have remained, however, Bismarckian (they are still mainly financed by social contribution, managed by health insurance funds, they deliver public and private health care, and freedom is still higher than in national health systems), but a new ‘regulatory health care state’ is emerging. Those changes are embedded in the existing institutions since the aim of the reforms is more to change the logic of institutions than to change the institutions themselves. Hence, structural changes occur without revolution in the system.
Who are behavioural public policy experts and how are they organised globally?
- Author:
- STRABHEIM Holger
- Journal article citation:
- Policy and Politics, 49(1), 2021, pp.69-86.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
Behavioural public policy has spread internationally over recent years. Worldwide, expert units are translating insights from behavioural sciences into policy interventions. Yet, behavioural expert networks are a puzzling case. They seem to oscillate between two modes of collective action: as an epistemic community, they are based on the consensual belief that biases in behaviour pose a problem for policymaking. As an instrument constituency, they bring together a diversity of actors, unified not by consensual beliefs about problems but by practices of promoting behavioural instruments as solutions. Drawing on a review of literature, this article provides a systematic analysis of the relation between epistemic communities and instrument constituencies. It argues that there has been an ‘agency shift’ from one mode to the other. The implications are that experts should be aware of the fact that the instruments they are proposing might develop a political life of their own. (Edited publisher abstract)
Analysis of the national Roma integration strategies
- Authors:
- KAMMERER Sophie, PFOHMAN Shannon
- Publisher:
- European Roma Policy Coalition
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 66p.
- Place of publication:
- Brussels
Under the new European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, EU Member States were required to submit strategies on Roma inclusion to the European Commission (EC) by the end of December 2011. In a first step, the European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC) carried out desk screening assessments of the National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) submitted by the governments of Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Wales, as well as the Czech Republic’s Roma Integration Concept for 2010 to 2013. In a second step, the ERPC gathered the views of Roma and Traveller organisations and civil society on the processes that led to the design of the NRIS in the different Member States. This report is divided into three main parts. The first part is based on an analysis of ERPC reviewers on the NRIS for the different Member States that submitted a strategy. The second part reflects an analysis of survey results on various stakeholders’ perspectives of the NRIS. The third part reflects the lessons learnt and the recommendations.
Social policy in challenging times: economic crisis and welfare systems
- Editors:
- FARNSWORTH Kevin, IRVING Zoe, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 352p.
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
The editors believe that the current economic crisis looks set to redefine social policy debate throughout the world but they note that is effects are not uniform across nations. This book brings together contributions analysing the impact of the 2008-9 financial crisis on key welfare systems to provide an insight into the challenges currently facing social policy across the globe. The key lesson to emerge from this book is that 'the crisis' is better understood as a variety of crises, each mediated by national context. Chapters include: varieties of crisis; the economic crisis and paradigm change; from financial crisis to fiscal crisis; credit crunch, inequality and social policy; global social policy responses to the economic crisis; poverty, the crisis and social policy responses in developing countries; South Korea after the 1997 economic crisis: a 'paradigm shift'?; China's response to crisis: what role for social policy?; re-evaluating the German social model in light of the global recession; Ireland and the impact of the economic crisis: upholding the dominant policy paradigm; Iceland, kreppan and alternative social policy futures; experiences from two financial crises in the Nordic welfare states: 1990-93 and 2008-10 compared; social policy and the recent economic crisis and in Canada and the United States; from economic crisis to a new age of austerity: the UK.
Opportunity and solidarity
- Author:
- TAYLOR-GOOBY Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Policy, 40(3), July 2011, pp.453-470.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Place of publication:
- Cambridge
European welfare states have developed a range of services designed to meet the social risks encountered in the normal life-course such as unemployment, sickness, education for children, with some expenditure on benefits to reduce poverty. The main themes are security and redistribution. However, there has been a recent restructuring of provision across European welfare states which emphasise proactivity, individual responsibility, and access to opportunities. This article considers whether the development of these more individualist approaches risks damaging the support for collective provision on which the welfare state rests. The study uses data from the 2008 round of the European Social Survey regarding aspects of welfare and social provision and attitudes to governance, to compare attitudes in 3 countries: Sweden, Germany and the UK. The findings suggest that the new opportunity-centred approaches in social policy can provide a basis for trust and solidarity just as much as the security and equality approach. However, there also needs to be a corresponding proactivity of government to secure good access to more equal opportunities for vulnerable groups to support individual proactivity in grasping opportunities.
Now it's personal: learning from welfare-to-work approaches around the world
- Authors:
- BEN-GALIM Dalia, SACHRAJDA Alice
- Publisher:
- Institute for Public Policy Research
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 38p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Now It's Personal is a project in which the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is exploring the role of personal advisers in the welfare-to-work sector, how welfare can provide personal support, and what steps need to be taken to achieve sustainable jobs and integrated skills and training. In the context of the new coalition government's proposals for changes to the welfare system, this publication focuses on the role of the personal adviser in providing personalised employment support and advice, noting that personalised support is essential to improving the chances of people finding work. It is a collection of essays about aspects of personalisation, employment, and welfare-to-work approaches around the world.