Activation and the Austrian social assistance: permanent entry

Purpose - Social policy tries to foster (re) integration into the labour market and social inclusion via specific programmes. The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge about the common experiences of people in such schemes. Design/methodology/approach - A total of four group discussions were conducted in four different Austrian cities. The added collective dimension is at least as important to the understanding of the felt experience of labour activation recipients as their individualised views. Findings - Collectively, activation is not something that is experienced as promoting lasting inclusion; rather, participants express a common line of argument towards a situation of "permanent entry". Activation programmes allow for a certain form of support but do that in a specific and restricted way. Research limitations/implications - The authors could only obtain an explorative analysis by contrasting four discussions which rely only on the opinion of participants and not of caseworkers. Practical implications - One has to define how to implement activation policies in reality so that they do not foster "permanent entry" which becomes a societal norm for specific groups. Social implications - Social policy needs to be discussed including the perspective of participants in reforms. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the debate on inclusion and exclusion. Instead of the dominant logic of achieving social inclusion via activation, it treats the issue of "permanent entry" to programmes.