Immigration to the Land of Redistribution

By T. Boeri. Social Science Research Network, 2010

218 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Negative perceptions about migrants in Europe, the Continent with the largest social policy programmes, are driven by concerns that foreigners are a net fiscal burden. Paradoxically instruments of social inclusion are becoming a weapon of mass exclusion. Increasing concerns of public opinion are indeed pressing Governments, in the midst of the recession, to reduce welfare access by migrants or further tighten migration policies. Are there politically feasible alternatives to these two hardly enforceable (and procyclical) policy options? In this paper we look at economic and cultural determinants of negative perceptions about migrants in Europe. Based on a simple model of the perceived fiscal effects of migration and on a largely unexploited database (EU-Silc), we find no evidence that legal migrants, notably skilled migrants, are net recipients of transfers from the state. However, there is evidence of "residual dependency" on non-contributory transfers and self-selection of migrants more likely to draw on welfare in the countries with the most generous welfare state. Moreover, redistribution does not find much support among those who are in favour of immigration. A way out of the migration into the welfare state dilemma facing Europe involves i. co-ordinating safety nets across the EU, ii. adopting explicitly selective migration policies, and iii. improving activation programmes. Other options – such as restricting migration or welfare access by migrants – are however on the agenda of national Governments.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9611868bcb71792b03119125254a0c1faea3f638

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

In Political Science and International Relations

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Immigration, Search, and Redistribution: A Quantitative Assessment of Native Welfare (2018, unknown): “…again, surveys show that unemployment and fiscal transfers are the most important determinants of overall attitudes towards migration by natives (Boeri, 2010).34 Introducing random-search frictions into a model featuring skill complementarity has quantitatively important implications on the…”
The Impact of Immigration on the Well-Being of Natives (2014, unknown): “Another example is Boeri (2010), who argues that opinions towards immigrants are affected by the business cycle.”
Immigration, public opinion and the recession in Europe (2016, background): “Nevertheless Boeri (2010) finds some evidence that, across European countries, actual and perceived fiscal burdens are correlated and that higher fiscal burdens are associated with more negative opinion.”
Immigrants, Labour Market Performance and Social Insurance (2014, unknown): “Prior evidence from Europe shows that migrants in many host countries are overrepresented among beneficiaries of non-contributory transfers (Boeri, 2010).”
Immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe1 (2019, background): “Boeri (2010) and Borjas (1999) find evidence of such welfare magnet effects respectively in the context of the US and of Western Europe (see also Razin and Wahba (2015)).”