Street Level Bureaucracies and Their Impact on Migrant in/Exclusion

While legal regulations are crucial parameters for the provision of welfare (social security in a broad sense) and thereby the differential in/exclusion of migrants, recent sociological research draws attention to the specifics of the delivery of such services and in particular the role of bureaucrats and service providers who interact with migrant clients. These street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky 1980) use their scope of decision-making in the context of specific constraints of their institutional workplaces as well as their own experiences, values and perspectives on migrants and their entitlements. Bureaucratic decisions can have detrimental outcomes for migrants’ social security, employment pathways and/or wellbeing – especially but not only in transnational settings, which highlights the importance of understanding street level bureaucracies. We are inviting contributions that engage with street level bureaucracy in relation to migrants, for example through analyzing interactions between migrants and street-level bureaucrats or the outcomes of such encounters; focusing on either migrants or bureaucrats – or both. We welcome contributions based on empirical research (using qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods) as well as theoretical papers.