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 Sala 2 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 of 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 only 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 120 96 100 87 2005 Men born in 76 bordering countries 80 71 2012 Men born in 62 bordering countries 60 51 46 2005 Total men 40 23 22 2012 Total men 14 20 5 5 - 60 _ 64 65 _ 69 70 and over 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 100 94 90 90 80 72 71 2005 Women born in 69 70 bordering countries 55 60 2012 Women born in 48 bordering countries 50 44 40 2005 Total women 40 30 25 2012 Total women 16 20 14 10 - 60 _ 64 65 _ 69 70 y más Source: Permanent Household Survey. Second semester of 2005 and fourth trimester of 2012

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 occupations 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 of 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 opportunity 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