Böcker Anita, Hunter Alistair
Centre for Migration Law, Radboud University, PO Box 9049, 6500 KK Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
The Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh, 16 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD UK.
Eur J Ageing. 2017 May 17;14(4):353-363. doi: 10.1007/s10433-017-0431-6. eCollection 2017 Dec.
Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by providing lifelong income security for older migrants who return to countries of origin on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. This article asks what motivated policymakers to initially develop these novel policy tools for transnational ageing which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state. Based on interviews with key stakeholders and available official documents, we find that in both France and the Netherlands, policymakers' initial motivations can be characterised as rather benign, if not beneficent: to facilitate return for those who are willing but unable to afford it. However, two types of obstacle have impeded the delivery of such policies. Non-discrimination clauses and free movement rights in EU law may make it difficult to implement policies for specific categories of older migrants. Electoral may also lead policymakers to shelve policies which benefit older migrants, in a European context where public opinion on immigration is less and less favourable. Nonetheless, opposition may be neutralised by the budgetary advantages of these schemes, since older returnees do not consume public services such as healthcare.
跨国老龄化给以国家为界的福利国家带来了根本性挑战，这些福利国家在历史上往往按照特定国家领土内国民和永久居民之间的团结逻辑来组织。尽管如此，荷兰和法国政府已采取措施打破团结与福利的地域限制消费之间的这种联系，为永久或半永久返回原籍国的老年移民提供终身收入保障。本文探讨了是什么促使政策制定者最初为跨国老龄化制定这些与福利国家的领土逻辑相悖的新政策工具。基于对关键利益相关者的访谈和现有的官方文件，我们发现，在法国和荷兰，政策制定者的最初动机即使不算慈善，也可被描述为相当良性：为那些愿意但无力负担回国费用的人提供便利。然而，有两类障碍阻碍了此类政策的实施。欧盟法律中的非歧视条款和自由流动权利可能使针对特定类别的老年移民实施政策变得困难。在欧洲，公众对移民的看法越来越不利，选举也可能导致政策制定者搁置有利于老年移民的政策。尽管如此，这些计划在预算方面的优势可能会抵消反对意见，因为回国的老年人不消费医疗保健等公共服务。
