The access of bordering migrants to social security in Argentina for - - PDF document

The access of bordering migrants to social security in Argentina for the period 2005-2012 1 Gabriela Adriana Sala2 Centro de Estudios e investigaciones laborales- CONICET- Argentina Introduction Most studies describing the attributes of bordering migrants residing in Argentina were focused on active ages but the absence of research concerning the elder was remarkable. This article describes the attributes of border migrants over 59 who began to receive funds from pensions and retirement allowances between 2005-2012. During that period, the social security coverage remarkably increased as a result

• f the re orientation of social security policy.

The article provides some considerations about the social protection to international migrants. It summarizes the Argentine social security panorama towards the end of the decade. It refers to widening the social security coverage among bordering migrants. Finally, it analyzes attributes of migrants who began to receive social security benefits in the period 2005-2012. Methodology The status of new beneficiary was established on the basis of the follow up of individuals in pairs of successive waves by the Permanent Survey of Households in the years 2005-2012. The Permanent Household Survey of Argentina gathers information about individuals of prívate households in the main urban areas in this country, and for that reason it does not allow a characterization of the population residing in smaller areas or in collective households. It provides good quality data on labor participation, social security coverage at active ages and access to social security

1 Paper presented at the IUSSP 28th International Population Conference, Cape Town –South

• Africa. October 2017. Based on Sala (2017).

2 Email.gabriela_adriana67@yahoo.com.ar

benefits at all ages.Moreover, it informs about the income from different sources and allows to determine poverty levels of individuals and households. It is performed on a quarterly basis thus allowing an analysis of trends. It foresees a scheme of partial rotation of individuals allowing the construction of panels which facilitate the establishment of transitions in the same individual. It provides information of better quality than the info provided by the population censuses, because they are carried out by specialized surveyors and by a periodical follow up of errors and biases. (Ribotta, et all, 2011). One of the limitations of this source originates in the sample condition of the information, which limits the possibilities of simultaneously considering different variables, especially when small populations are analyzed and they are offset with the simultaneous treatment of several measurements. Conclusions The possibility of having access to social security benefits depends on the labor story besides the density of contributions to the social security system of each

• individual. It also arises from the characteristics of the social security systems in

each country, in particular from the dynamics and scope of the contributory and non-contributory components. Thus, elder people with precarious labor stories and non-existent or intermittent contributions to the social security system can

• nly access regular benefits when reaching old age, mainly by means of non-

contributory retirement grants. Most bordering migrants residing in Argentina have historically engaged in trades such as construction, domestic service, retail business and agriculture. The precariousness of their jobs limited access to retirement grants or pensions when they reached old age. Thus, the fragility of the stories of contributions to the social security system, in a context in which a contribution based social security scheme prevailed, resulted in a very low proportion of old bordering adults with benefits from pensions or retirement grants in 2005. The Argentine social security system contemplated granting old age pensions to migrants of seventy years old or over, with no social security benefits, on the condition of having resided steadily in the country for thirty years, and with at least ten years of contributions, five of which should have been made during the eight years previous to the application. The requirement as regards the time for the contributions limited the access to the social security system and explained the lack of social security benefits of almost half the amount of old bordering adults in 2005.

Figure 1 Men born in bordering countries receiving retirement or pension income by age (%) Argentina, urban areas 2005 and 2012

Source: Permanent Household Survey. Second semester of 2005 and fourth trimester of 2012

Figure 2 Women born in bordering countries receiving retirement or pension income by age (%) Argentina, urban areas 2005 and 2012

Source: Permanent Household Survey. Second semester of 2005 and fourth trimester of 2012

5 5 51 22 62 87 14 46 76 23 71 96

• 20

40 60 80 100 120 60 _ 64 65 _ 69 70 and over 2005 Men born in bordering countries 2012 Men born in bordering countries 2005 Total men 2012 Total men 14 16 48 40 71 72 25 44 69 55 90 94

• 10

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 60 _ 64 65 _ 69 70 y más 2005 Women born in bordering countries 2012 Women born in bordering countries 2005 Total women 2012 Total women

Between 2005 and 2012 the expansion of the social security coverage together with the fact that to have access to identity documents became easier, improved the inclusion of old bordering adults in the social security system. Most new beneficiaries with this origin could not have retired with the previous legislation because they had not contributed regularly to the social security system. This is the case of those inactive and those occupied in construction, domestic service and direct commercialization, many of them free lancers, or living on a salary with no social security discounts. Among the new beneficiaries born in bordering countries it was highly important the participation of those who were inactive, especially among women, who represented the three quarter parts. Among the occupied with that origin half the males and four out of ten women were free lancers and four out of ten lived on a

• salary. The relative weight of salaried workers with social security discounts was

higher among border males and lower among migrant women in comparison to the total number of new salaried beneficiaries of the same sex. Among the new bordering beneficiaries those who had previously worked in

• ccupations related to construction, storage, direct commercialization and

domestic service were the most significant. Among those with an occupation having this origin, three patterns of transition towards retirement were detected. The first pattern was characterized by the direct transition from the total occupation or over-occupation to retirement; a second pattern, less intense, of post-retirement labor continuity and another one

• f gradual retirement, in a fraction of women totally occupied and over-occupied.

It was also observed that the social security income of those who were born in a bordering country was lower in comparison to that of the total population with no distinction as regards their migratory origin. The new social security legislation benefited women especially and, among them, the bordering migrants, for whom it also meant a valuable and exceptional

• pportunity to obtain an income of their own in old age. The bordering women

who began to receive social security income in the period 2005-2012 were old, with a lower level of education, there was a higher presence of inactive women, free lancers and non-registered salaried, in comparison to the total number of new social security beneficiaries. One effect of the dissemination of changes in the migration and social security legislation was that migrants became conscious about their right to receive social security benefits. Even if most steps to become a beneficiary of a retirement grant by extension of terms could be freely taken at ANSES, there were multiple offers

• f free legal counseling to obtain a “retirement with no contributions”, which led

many migrants to search for information to begin with the procedure and also led many attorneys to make consultations about how to prove the years of residency in Argentina. The gap in the levels of social security coverage reached by the bordering migrants and the total population of urban conglomerated still remained by 2012.Moreover, the biggest gapswere observed among bordering women. The huge lackof social security income among bordering migrants is an evidence of the accumulation of disadvantages along their lives.Apart from the stories of discontinuous or failed contributions, the lower coverage achieved by bordering migrants could be explained by lack of information, of identity documents, difficulties to take the necessary steps at state run entities, and most of all, the self perception of not having the right to receive social security benefits for being foreigners, inactivity or precariousness of occupations developed in the past. The access to retirement allowances through a “social security extension of terms” takes for granted a voluntary adherence of individuals who fulfill certain requirements as regards age and periods of contributions, and depends on the initiatives and individuals capacities to obtain information, follow procedures, pay fees and finance social security term extension. Since in general most old age bordering migrants have a low level of education, it is very likely that they face limitations even higher than those faced by natives at the moment of starting to enjoy the social security benefits and the associated medical coverage. This leads us to reflect about the importance of affirmative actions to foster the access of the less favored minorities to the benefits of policies with a universal

• character. The gap in the levels of social security coverage among migrants and

natives detected in 2012 shows the importance of those actions, in which

• rganizations of migrants could have a fundamental role to guarantee minimal

income and health coverage in old age. The promotion of the access of migrants to the social security system was not a specific goal of the changes in the social security policy, although they can be considered examples of “good practices” partially reducing the barriers of access to the social security benefits. However, there is still an obstacle for its full removal, arising from the minimum term of steady residency in the country (30 years), the number of years of contributions, and the required minimal age. On these grounds, the access is limited for those who have a shorter term of residency, in many cases recent, younger migrants who, due to accidents or sickness die or become disabled to work, and who cannot receive disability retirement grants or pensions or their relatives cannot inherit them.

The characterization of the new social security beneficiaries coming from neighboring countries is the first step towards researching the impact of the social security reform in the life conditions of migrant old adults.This is a ground that in this article was explored in its most general aspects, but which deserves to be fully studied in future investigations. The biggest richness of this article lies in the exploitation of the data of the Permanent Household Survey to describe the profile of a specific sub-group of new social security beneficiaries. This is a source of data about households and individuals commonly used in many countries. References. Bertranou, Fabio, Oscar Cetrángolo, Carlos Grushka y Luis Casanova, 2012, “Más allá de la privatización y la restatización del sistema previsional de Argentina: cobertura, fragmentación y sostenibilidad”. Desarrollo Económico Nº

• 205. ISSN 0046-001X, Vol. 52, abril-junio de 2012

Ginneken Wouter Van, 2013, “Social Protection for Migrant Workers: National and International Policy Challenges” European Journal of Social Security, Volume 15 (2013), No. 2 209. Disponible en http://www.ejss.eu/pdf_file/ITS/EJSS_15_02_0209.pdf Sala, Gabriela, 2012, “Cobertura previsional, empleo y desempleo entre los adultos mayores argentinos”. En la Revista latinoamericana de Población. Asociación Latinoamericana de Población. Año 6, Número 11. Julio-Diciembre, 2012. ISSN 2175-8581 Rio de Janeiro. Brasil. Disponible en http://www.alapop.org/2009/images/stories/alap/relap11/relap_11_04.pdf. Sala Gabriela, 2017 Reorientación de la política previsional argentina y acceso de los migrantes limítrofes a la seguridad social/. In Migraciones Internacionales,

• Vol. 9, Núm. 32, Enero-Junio de 2017. El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, México.

San Antonio del Mar Baja California. Available in https://ojs.colef.mx/index.php/migracionesinternacionales/article/view/891 Tokman Víctor, 2008, “Movilidad internacional de personas y protección social” Santiago de Chile, junio de 2008 67 macroeconomía del desarrollo. Serie BID. Disponible en http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/6/33896/LCL2913_P.pdf. Consultado el 13 de noviembre de 2015.