ABSTRACT
Since T. H. Marshall’s (1950) seminal work on the link between the dynamics of citizenship and the institutionalization of social rights, the welfare state has become a central research site for the study of inclusionary and exclusionary processes. In recent years, important theoretical and empirical efforts have been invested in the examination of ideological, political, and institutional factors underlying processes of exclusion and inclusion of subordinate groups-especially women and ethnic minorities-in the welfare state (e.g., O’Connor 1996; Quadagno 1994; Sainsbury 1996). Labor migrants present an especially interesting case of incorporation. Since the development of the concept of social rights corresponds historically with the consolidation of the nation-state and the extension of citizenship, their presence in Western countries represents a basic challenge to the exclusionary character of the welfare state. Hence, the migrants’ status in the system of distribution of social rights emerged as an important topic in the analysis of welfare state dynamics and in the study of the constitution of differential categories of membership in democratic polities.
