Securing the care and welfare of dependants transnationally : peruvians and spaniards in Spain. Working Paper Number WP404

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the growing interdependence between household strategies in Europe and those stemming from developing countries where international migration has become a main resource. In an attempt to reveal the forces underlying the match between the realities and expectations of an increasingly connected world population, I will compare the way that different families and individuals secure care and welfare for themselves and for their dependants. Drawing from a case study on Peruvians in Spain I will demonstrate, immigration is only a partial, and in the best of cases, non-global remedy for the need to care for dependants and to secure old-age pensions. Most Peruvians soon naturalize after settling in the country and eventually reunify their families who, in turn, hope to obtain the same social benefits for themselves. At the same time, the gap between dependants from migrant and non-migrant families are clearly widening both here and in their country of origin. Given the current dynamics, the process of externalizing care and welfare will result in people being replaced at whim, provided that other social arrangements, including a revision of gender roles, are not sought transnationally to resolve these issues.