Multilevel Social Citizenship

Overview & Synopsis

Access to minimum social rights for internal migrants is highly contested in the EU. Moreover, the limits to EU social citizenship are often identified in relation to national citizenship. However, developments of the EU are in many ways comparable to federations and conceptualizations of citizenship in multi-tiered jurisdictions, which is often overlooked in the literature. This book provides an account of the determinants of social citizenship in federal contexts where freedom of movement of persons is combined with sub-federal welfare provision. We understand social citizenship as access to minimum social benefits, and, therefore, examine the political processes behind the extension and contraction of social assistance rights for internal migrants across time and space, analyzing 19th and early 20th-century imperial Germany, 20th-century United States of America, and the European Union, with a focus on Germany. Our book stands out for its use of detailed case studies, each undertaken by experts in their respective fields, and its historical and international comparative analyses. Our primary archival data, policy documents, statistical data, and interviews allow for an original in-depth analysis of a broad range of issues from multiple perspectives. This solid empirical foundation permits for an in-depth analysis of a broad range of topics, from political debates at all levels of multi-tiered federal systems to the implementation of the resulting legislation on the ground.