This literature review assesses the evidence on internal migrants’ participation in social protection schemes. Internal migrants often risk being ineligible for social protection owing to a combination of population registration and residency requirements. However, even when eligible, they may in practice not participate.

Reasons for non-participation include complex and costly registration requirements, portability constraints and limited enforcement of official policy rules. Such features interact with additional factors such as sector and nature of employment, which are linked to whether a migrant has a contract. Other factors that affect migrants’ participation in social protection include limited knowledge and awareness of programmes and language barriers.