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Digital Practices of Negotiation: Social Workers at the Intersection of Migration and Social Policies in Switzerland and Belgium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2022

SOPHIE ANDREETTA Open the ORCID record for SOPHIE ANDREETTA [Opens in a new window]  and
LISA MARIE BORRELLI Open the ORCID record for LISA MARIE BORRELLI [Opens in a new window]
SOPHIE ANDREETTA*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle, Faculté des Sciences Sociales, Université de Liège, Place des orateurs, 3 - B.31, B - 4000 Liège, Belgium email: sandreetta@uliege.be
LISA MARIE BORRELLI
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Work, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Sierre and nccr - On the Move, Switzerland email: lisa.borrelli@hevs.ch
*
Corresponding author, email: sandreetta@uliege.be
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Abstract

Paperwork has always been a central part of bureaucratic work. Over the last few years, bureaucratic procedures have become increasingly standardised and digitalised. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork within welfare offices in Switzerland and Belgium, we reflect on the way evidence is constructed within social policy and cases built for or against noncitizen welfare recipients in order to show how paper truths are established and challenged. The focus on digital practices within public policy implementation highlights how it contributes to enhanced control mechanisms on the implementation level and how migration law continues to guide welfare governance for noncitizens. This allows targeting of the most marginalised groups, whose rights to access state support are institutionally impeded. Through database information flows, official forms, paper reports and face-to-face meetings, we further show how a hybrid form of bureaucratic work emerges, where direct contact with the client is still key, yet highly influenced by standardisation processes.

Keywords

Digitalisationmaterialitymigration controlpaperworksocial serviceswelfare policies
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 329 - 347
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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