星星之火，何以燎原——论社会保障国际合作的兴起与发展
A Single Spark can Start a Prairie Fire——Discussion on Rise and Development of International Cooperation of Social Security

由于海外劳工在境外就业期间往往会遭遇社会保障双重缺失、社会保障双重缴费以及社会保障待遇支付障碍等诸多困境，使得西欧国家于20世纪初开始探索开展社会保障国际合作，主要方式是国家之间签署社会保障国际协定，合理地承担和分享海外劳工社会保障的责任与效益。经过一个多世纪的发展，社会保障国际合作开始由探索时期步入成熟时期，不仅在覆盖区域、惠及人群以及主要内容方面实现了由小到大、由少到多和由点到面的发展，而且在合作方式上实现了由双边协定到双边与多边协定并举的发展，进而成为了全球各国维护海外劳工社会保障权益的有效途径。
Due to the facts that overseas workers will encounter many difficulties during their employment abroad,such as absence of social security,double payment of social security and payment barrier of social security payment etc.,western European countries began to explore the international cooperation of social security in the early twentieth century. The main way for them to do that is to sign international social security agreements among countries and reasonably undertake and share the responsibilities and benefits of the overseas workers’ social security. After the development for more than a century,the international cooperation of social security has entered a mature period from the exploration period,which not only has made great progress in the covering areas,benefiting people and the main content,but also has developed the cooperation from bilateral agreements to bilateral and multilateral agreements simultaneously,and it further has become an effective way to safeguard the rights and interests of overseas workers in the world.