Social Security Coordination For Migrant Workers: A Comparative Study Of India, The European Union, And China
Ankush Kumar, B.A. LL.B., Government Law College, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
Labour migration has outpaced the legal architecture meant to protect it. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of how India, the European Union, and China coordinate social security entitlements for migrant workers, spanning both internal and cross-border movement. It examines the legal instruments, institutional machinery, and portability mechanisms in each jurisdiction - the EU's supranational Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 framework, India's fragmented statutory and portal-based approach under the Code on Social Security, 2020, and China's hukou-linked social insurance system now undergoing reform to permit place-of-employment enrolment. The paper finds that the EU offers the most legally binding and rights-based coordination regime, built on the principles of single applicable legislation, equality of treatment, aggregation of insurance periods, and exportability of benefits; India offers the widest formal bilateral treaty network for outbound workers but the weakest protection for its overwhelmingly informal internal migrant majority; and China, despite lacking a comparable external framework, is undertaking the most significant recent structural reform to its internal portability regime through the 2025–2026 hukou-social insurance delinking policy. Drawing on these findings, the paper argues that India's forthcoming labour codes should combine EU-style aggregation principles with China's shift toward place-of-work enrolment, converting the e-Shram registry from a database into an enforceable portability instrument. The paper concludes with policy recommendations addressed to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Inter-State Council, and State Labour Departments.
Keywords: Social security coordination, Migrant workers, Labour law, Portability, EPFO, Regulation 883/2004, Hukou reform, Code on Social Security 2020
