portability

The Portability of social security benefits is the ability to preserve, maintain, and transfer acquired social security rights and social security rights in the process of being acquired from one private, occupational, or public social security scheme to another without losing their contributions (Cruz 2004).

Hence, if social security benefits are portable, contributors to, for example, old-age pension schemes do not experience any disadvantage like the loss of contributions and benefits associated with these contributions when moving from one job to another, from one occupation to another, or from the public to the private sector.

International portability of social security rights allows international migrants, who have contributed to a social security scheme for some time in a particular country, to maintain acquired benefits or benefits in the process of being acquired when moving to another country.

International portability of social security benefits is therefore understood as the migrant's ability to preserve, maintain, and transfer acquired social security rights independent of nationality and country of residence.

International portability of social security benefits is achieved through bilateral social security agreements between States. These agreements guarantee the totalization of periods of contribution to the social security systems of both states and the extraterritorial payment of benefits. Currently it is estimated that around 20 percent of migrants worldwide are covered by bilateral social security agreements (Holzmann, Koettl, and Chernetsky 2005).

References

• Cruz, Armando (2004). "Portability of benefits rights in response to external and internal labor mobility: the Philippine experience". Paper presented at the International Social Security Association (ISSA), Thirteenth Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific in Kuwait, March 8-10. Available at http://www.issa.int/pdf/kuwait04/2cruz.pdf.
• Holzmann, Robert, Johannes Koettl, and Taras Chernetsky (2005). "Portability regimes of pension and health care benefits for international migrants: an analysis of issues and good practices". Paper commissioned by the Global Commission on International Migration. Available at http://www.gcim.org/en/ir_experts.html.

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