Agency in Transnational Social Protection: Practices of Migrant Families Between Bulgaria and Germany

Book excerpt: Agency in Transnational Social Protection: Practices of Migrant Families Between Bulgaria and Germany offers a unique and innovative research strategy, analysing social protection arrangements of Bulgarian movers and their families who arrived in Germany in the context of EU enlargements. Critically approaching social tourism debates in the context of EU enlargements this work significantly contributes to a highly undertheorized field of Bulgarian migration in Germany, more specifically in its aspect of social protection within the framework of EU social security coordination. Going beyond the state of art on migration and social protection, Jana Fingarova applies a micro-sociological interpretative approach to develop a typology of migrant agency articulations of subordination, empowerment, and gradually learned assertiveness. Allowing for a temporal-processual perspective on agency, the work overcomes the duality of active vs. passive agents, exposing a more complex picture—apart from social or educational status, family and individual mobility projects play crucial role in the social protection arrangements of EU movers.