ABSTRACT

This article advances understanding of how transnational welfare has emerged in practice within and in relation to the nation-state framework, focusing on the responses of civil society actors to the European migration crisis in Greece. It draws on in-depth interviews with different types of civil society actors engaged in activities in Greece during and since the 2015 period of the migration crisis, including national and international NGOs, local solidarity groups, and international volunteers. The findings point to the ways in which transnational welfare through civil society actions arose in relation to the perceived crisis of the national state and inter-state system, in failing to address the needs of migrants and refugees but also Greek residents. However, transnational welfare also emerged through forms of collective action and identification that sought to counter the social boundaries of nation-state systems in relation to migration and welfare. It is argued that analyses of transnational welfare require attention to both those dimensions – that is, how civil society actions forge new meanings and ways of ‘doing’ welfare that may be trans-national in contesting the boundaries of nation-state systems, but also the limits to those actions in relation to the state.

摘要

本文加深了对跨国福利如何在民族国家框架内和与民族国家框架相关的实践中出现的理解，重点关注民间社会参与者对希腊欧洲移民危机的反应。它借鉴了对 2015 年移民危机期间和之后在希腊从事活动的不同类型的民间社会行为者的深入访谈，包括国家和国际非政府组织、地方团结团体和国际志愿者。调查结果指出了通过民间社会行动产生的跨国福利与民族国家和国家间系统的感知危机相关的方式，未能解决移民和难民以及希腊居民的需求。然而，跨国福利也通过集体行动和认同的形式出现，旨在消除民族国家体系在移民和福利方面的社会界限。有人认为，对跨国福利的分析需要关注这两个方面——即公民社会的行动如何形成新的意义和“做”福利的方式，这可能是跨国界在争夺民族国家体系的边界，但也挑战那些与国家有关的行动的界限。