International Migration Institute

What motivates policymakers to initially develop these very specifically-targeted policy proposals which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state? Transnational mobility presents fundamental challenges to nationally-bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to territorial principles of solidarity among permanent residents / nationals. By developing legislation to create welfare benefits encouraging the durable return of specific groups of older migrants to their countries of origin, the Dutch and French governments have taken recent unusual steps to break this link between national solidarity and territorially-bounded consumption of welfare. This presentation asks what motivated policymakers to initially develop these very specifically-targeted policy proposals which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state. Based on interviews and available official documents, we follow the subsequent 'biographies' of the two policies, explaining why the revi