Introduction: immigration and the welfare state: Michael Bommes and Andrew Geddes

This book's sub-title - Challenging the Borders of the Welfare State - reflects a commonly held assumption about relations between immigration and the welfare state. The book's task is to map the challenge, which requires avoiding simplistic and misleading constructions of immigration as a 'threat' or 'danger' and, instead, directing attention towards the ways that international migration in its various forms structurally challenges the organisation and conceptual borders of national welfare states. We seek an enhanced understanding of relations between migration and welfare in diverse national settings, in relation to various types of migration, and in the light of supranational socio-economic developments such as European integration.