ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the importance of paying attention to the discourse on social protection, rather than exclusively to policy changes. It reviews the growing constraints on the financing of social security in the context of an internationalized economy. The book explores describes the impact of globalization and of national institutional structures on the quality of social insurance in the field of unemployment benefits. It analyzes policy changes in New Zealand, Sweden, and Switzerland as countries which are particularly exposed to external pressures in the international economy. The book discusses the social rights of migrants from other European Union countries with those of asylum-seekers from outside the European Union. It outlines the importance of employment in the alleviation of poverty, with working households being exposed to a much lower risk of poverty than workless households.
