No German, no service: unequal access to welfare entitlements in Germany

While existing research has analysed the intersecting migration and social security law, which stratifies migrants’ formal social entitlements, less work has been done on the informal stratifications beyond the law that determine substantive social rights. This article illustrates the informal barriers to de facto benefit receipt that intra‐EU migrant citizens may experience when claiming social assistance in local German job centres, regardless of their manifest legal entitlements. Focussing on informal, yet commonly institutionalised practices of language discrimination, analysis of 103 qualitative, in‐depth interviews reveal recurring patterns of administrative exclusion beyond individual instances of discriminatory behaviour. The unwritten rules and everyday practices shaping administrators’ claims‐processing routines often go against what the law or administrative procedures proscribe, and could be considered as forms of discrimination. The former may be explained by institutional constraints, such as a performance‐orientedmanagement culture, legalistic claims‐processing, or superficial diversity policies. By shedding light on how inequalities in access are constructed in daily administrative practice, this article adds to existing empirical knowledge on how informal inequalities in access emerge at different stages of the benefit claiming process, in contrast to formal social rights on paper, as well as social administrations’ handling of diversity in a context of transnational social protection

EU migrants' experiences of claims-making in German job centres

The paper describes intra-EU migrants’ experiences with (transnational) social security in Germany, showcasing their sense-making of the claims-making process to basic subsistence benefits in local job centres. The analysis of 48 qualitative interviews with intra- EU migrants and key informants illustrates how they are not merely passive recipients but may actively assert their rights, based on their degree of familiarity with German welfare bureaucracy, their pre-existing welfare expectations, and their available cultural and social capital. Whether EU migrant citizens decide to claim relates to their cost-benefit analyses on the accessibility to benefits and to alternative means of support, as well as their perceived social legitimacy to draw on German public social support. As a general trend, EU citizens first tried to exhaust all other means of generating an income, seeking to remain financially independent from state-provided welfare, before seeking to claim social assistance-type benefits as a last resort. The data also shows how some applicants are less able than others to pay the hidden costs imposed onto them during the claiming process. The paper finally highlights how, in the light of the inequalities of access they face, intra-EU migrants have developed a variety of strategies to satisfy their social protection needs, relying on a mix of formal and informal welfare arrangements

D0 Silicon Upgrade: Cable Power Dissipation in the D0 Silicon Tracker

Readout cables extend from the ladder end to the outer barrel radius in the region where the F-disks are mounted. In this region it is difficult to know what the gas temperature will be due to the power dissipating components on the F-disks and power from all the cables. This region is convectively cooled by the barrel bulkhead and the F-disk cooling channel. Power dissipated in the cable will not only warm the surrounding gas but will warm the hybrid to which it is attached on the ladders and disks. Just how much power goes into the hybrid will be estimated here. Physically, the cable is composed of two layers of copper which are separated and encased by 3 layers of kapton. The central kapton layer is 0.001-inch thick, the outer two kapton layers are 0.0005-inch thick, and the two copper layers are 0.0006-inch thick. Mike Matulik estimated the power dissipation of the cables for the 3. 6, and 9 chip ladders. These estimates are based on the assumed cross-sectional area of copper in the cable and the current these cables will carry, for a 12-inch cable length. The assumed powers are 14, 49, and 114 mW, respectively. The cable power dissipation is modeled using the finite difference technique. To determine the allowable node size for this simulation a 5-inch cable was simulated, with the same cross-sectional area and nominal power dissipation approximately equal to the power dissipated in the 6 chip ladder cable. Node sizes of 25, 50, and 100 mils are considered. Considering Figures 1 and 2,100 mil nodes will be used for future simulations, considered adequately small to simulate the cable

Extended solidarity? the social consequences of covid-19 for marginalised migrant groups in Germany

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in sweeping changes across European societies. But what has it meant for the most vulnerable? Cecilia Bruzelius and Nora Ratzmann present an assessment on the impact on marginalised groups of migrants in Germany and identify some potential long-term trends that may result from the crisis

Conceptualising the role of deservingness in migrants’ access to social services

This ‘state-of-the art’ article on the role of deservingness in governing migrants’ access to social services situates our themed section’s contribution to the literature at the intersection between the study of street-level bureaucracy and practices of internal bordering through social policy. Considering the increasing relevance of migration control post-entry, we review the considerations that guide the local delivery of social services. Among others, moral ideas about a claimant’s worthiness to receive social benefits and services guide policy implementation. But while ideas of deservingness help to understand how perceptions of migrants’ claiming play out in practice, we observe limited use of the concept in street-level bureaucracy research. Drawing on theorisations from welfare attitudinal research, we demonstrate the salience of deservingness attitudes in understanding the dynamics of local social service delivery to migrant clients

Delegating migration control to local welfare actors: reporting obligations in practice

Most research on the social policy–migration control link focuses on indirect control, that is, denying access to welfare. This article instead draws attention to how welfare institutions are made directly involved in migration control through duties to report certain categories of migrants to migration authorities. We ask how these obligations are put into practice and how local governments shape this process. In so doing, we place special emphasis on local organisational fields – that is, the close horizontal connection between public and non-public actors involved in basic needs provision. The article builds on exploratory research across four German cities, drawing on 61 interviews conducted in 2019–2020 with welfare actors catering to basic needs (housing/shelter, healthcare, social assistance, social counselling) and document research. Based on this, we, first, explore patterns of reporting practices and provide a typology of different responses, ranging from elaborate circumvention strategies to over-compliance. Second, we analyse the domino effects of reporting obligations, namely how welfare actors that are exempted from reporting adopt their practices too, with consequences both for migrants' welfare access and for other authorities' ability to report. Finally, we discuss how local governments can shape reporting practices, demonstrating how some cities actively sanction circumvention strategies. The last part identifies venues for further research

What impact do information initiatives have on migration from Africa to Europe?

European countries have funded several migration information initiatives aimed at dissuading people in Africa from pursuing irregular migration to Europe. But how effective is this approach? Drawing on a new study, Katerina Glyniadaki, Nora Ratzmann and Julia Stier examine the impact of such initiatives through the eyes of the migrant returnees who implement them