Migration and Social Protection: A Concept Paper

This paper attempts to locate ‘migration’ within a social protection framework both theoretically and empirically. The creators of this paper add to the dominant theoretical discourse around social protection by introducing a ‘transformative’ element. They unravel the links between protection and migration by exploring migration-specific vulnerabilities. Social protection concerns can emerge at all stages of a migration process as different vulnerabilities characterise the ‘deciding migrant’, the ‘mobile migrant’, the ‘arrived migrant’, the 'returned migrant' and the migrant’s family that may remain at home. While the need to manage risk and secure livelihoods can be the main driver of migration decisions, a derived demand for various forms of social protection, state and non-state, may also arise from the migration process.