Perspectivas basadas en derechos sobre el acceso a la seguridad social para los migrantes temporales en Australia: ideas que emanande las experiencias europeas

Australia has over the years adopted a policy position that emphasises temporary migration, generally associated with a curtailment of access to social security. This has raised fundamental questions regarding the redistributive rationale of the welfare state, given the resultant shifting of responsibility to individuals and families. It has been difficult to address these concerns from a rights-based paradigm, in view of (among others) the absence of a binding Bill of Rights at the national level in Australia, and the effective superimposition of migration law and policy on the social security rights domain. Moreover, most migrant categories have been unable to successfully rely on alleged non-compliance by Australia with the international human rights domain as far as access to social security is concerned.

It is suggested that legal and jurisprudential developments in this regard in the European context may be of moral and ideally persuasive value. These developments hold potential value for constructing a rights-based and consistent framework. The reflection on these developments is restricted to the two main regional jurisdictional spheres, i.e. the European Union and the European Council – relying on instruments informing the social security sphere in these jurisdictions and the jurisprudence emanating from the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights respectively.