Social Inequalities Through the Lens of Social Protection: Notes on the Transnational Social Question

This concluding article to our special issue places the linkage of social protection and social inequalities in a broader context, namely the transnational social question in Europe and its periphery. The transnational social question pertains to the perception of social inequalities as illegitimate and to their politicisation. In so doing, this article also draws preliminary conclusions, based upon the main findings of the contributions in this special issue, with respect to the social protection strategies utilised by migrants and their significant others, both within and across borders. Transnationality as a marker of heterogeneity is of strategic significance for our understanding of the transnational social question, because it reveals the linkages across the fragmented worlds of social protection. In particular, it provides a window into the social mechanisms that underline social protection across borders and how these mitigate old and generate new social inequalities. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.