Migration och välfärdsstaten

Jag läste Christopher Caldwells artikel Immigration and welfare: a bad mix i Times, som starkt ifrågasätter att invandring är svaret på en åldrande befolkning, och kom att tänka på två relativt färska studier om invandring och välfärdsstaten i Norge och Danmark.

When Minority Labor Migrants Meet the Welfare State av Bernt Bratsberg, Oddbjørn Raaum och Knut Roed visar att arbetskraftsinvandrarna som kom till Norge under 70-talet successivt minskade sitt deltagande på arbetsmarknaden, vilket enligt författarna till del beror på välfärdssystemets utformning.

We find that the lifecycle employment profiles of nonwestern male labor migrants who came to Norway in the early 1970s diverge significantly from those of native comparison persons. During the first years after arrival almost all of the immigrants worked and their employment rate exceeded that of natives. But, about ten years upon arrival, immigrant employment started a sharp and steady decline. By 2000, the immigrant employment rate was 50 percent, compared to 87 percent for the native comparison group. To some extent, the decline in immigrant employment can be explained by immigrants being overrepresented in jobs associated with short employment careers. But we also identify considerable disincentives embedded in the social security system that contribute to poor lifecycle employment performance of immigrants with many dependent family members.

Immigration and the Welfare State: Some Danish Experiences av Christer Gerdes och Eskil Wadensjö undersöker invandrarnas påverkan på den offentliga sektorns ekonomi, dvs, hur mycket den invandrade befolkningen betalar in till och får från det offentliga.

The data show that the net transfer in all years studied goes from Western immigrants to the public sector, and from the public sector to immigrants from non-Western countries. The amounts are considerable.