Mobilities and ethics of the welfare state

Abstract (English)

The normative foundations of the Nordic welfare state have been largely organized by the principles of solidarity and responsibility built on ideas of (homogeneous) community and shared work ethics (Kidal and Kuhnle, 2005). These underlying values of the welfare institutions seem to be (or are typically presented as) increasingly challenged by mobile populations (Brochmann and Hagelund, 2012). With multisided belongings and care/social/familial obligations stretching across borders of a single state (Ryndyk et al., 2021), migrants not always fit the welfare eligibility rules predominantly organized by nationalistic logic (Righard, 2008). The failures in accommodating transnational migrant communities (e.g. resisting social integration through work, spending money from benefits on family abroad) are commonly explained by migrants’ apparent tendency to lean towards social welfare assistance often (dis)regard as welfare shopping. This facile interpretation tends to preclude more nuanced criticism of the possible ramification of the neolibearal governance and subjectivity for the welfare state in general, or the Nordic model in particular, including changing nature and social value of work. In this presentation I take example of Polish migrants in Iceland that have experienced instances of unemployment to show complexities of their integration with the Nordic welfare state. I apply concepts of economic opportunism and refusal of work to critically engage in a debate about migrants’ welfare dependency as well as to reflect on social value of work under neoliberal economy (cf. Sennett, 1998; Graeber, 2018). The presentation is based on ethnographic fieldwork as well as analysis of public and social media discourses.