ABSTRACT
This chapter looks back at the rise of social protection as a policy response to the extent and depth of chronic poverty and vulnerability in the Global South and reflects on the challenges this agenda has provided for labour migrants and forcibly displaced peoples. The legally defined relationship of a migrant or displaced person to the ‘host’ state is an obvious determinant of the access to and nature of social provision available to them. However, the socio-political and economic contexts in which migrants and displaced persons find themselves are as critical in delineating access and provision for these groups and must be carefully considered when designing social protection policy and programming responses. The chapter points out a number of challenges facing the social protection sector, illustrating how it is not fit for migrants and displaced people in its current form. Furthermore, it argues for a progressive, justice-framing of social provision that encourages us to pay attention to the design and delivery of social protection such that migrants and displaced populations are able to live and pursue livelihoods with dignity and in line with their human rights.
