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Immigration and Welfare State Cash Benefits: The Danish Case

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  • Pedersen, Peder J.

    (Aarhus University)

Abstract

The purpose in this paper is to summarize existing evidence on welfare dependence among immigrants in Denmark and to supply new evidence with focus on the most recent years. Focus is on immigrants from non-western countries. The paper contains an overview of the background regarding immigration in recent decades followed by a survey of relevant benefit programmes in the Danish welfare state. Existing studies focus on both macro analyses of the overall impact from immigration on the public sector budget and on micro oriented studies with focus on specific welfare programs. Existing studies focus on the importance for welfare dependence of demographic variables, on the big variation between countries of origin and on the importance of cyclical factors at time of entry and during the first years in the new country. Evidence from the most recent years reinforce the importance of aggregate low unemployment in contrast to fairly small effects found from policy changes intending to influence the economic incentives between welfare and a job for immigrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedersen, Peder J., 2011. "Immigration and Welfare State Cash Benefits: The Danish Case," IZA Discussion Papers 6220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6220
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosholm, Michael & Vejlin, Rune, 2010. "Reducing income transfers to refugee immigrants: Does start-help help you start?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 258-275, January.
    2. Alan Barrett & Yvonne McCarthy, 2008. "Immigrants and welfare programmes: exploring the interactions between immigrant characteristics, immigrant welfare dependence, and welfare policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(3), pages 543-560, Autumn.
    3. Blume, Kraen & Verner, Mette, 2007. "Welfare dependency among Danish immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 453-471, June.
    4. Nannestad, Peter, 2007. "Immigration and welfare states: A survey of 15 years of research," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 512-532, June.
    5. Clausen, Jens & Heinesen, Eskil & Hummelgaard, Hans & Husted, Leif & Rosholm, Michael, 2009. "The effect of integration policies on the time until regular employment of newly arrived immigrants: Evidence from Denmark," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 409-417, August.
    6. Pedersen, Peder J. & Pytlikova, Mariola & Smith, Nina, 2008. "Selection and network effects--Migration flows into OECD countries 1990-2000," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1160-1186, October.
    7. Nannestad, Peter, 2004. "Immigration as a challenge to the Danish welfare state?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 755-767, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vibeke Jakobsen & Tomas Korpi & Thomas Lorentzen, 2019. "Immigration and Integration Policy and Labour Market Attainment Among Immigrants to Scandinavia," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(2), pages 305-328, May.
    2. Jonas Helgertz & Pieter Bevelander & Anna Tegunimataka, 2014. "Naturalization and Earnings: A Denmark–Sweden Comparison," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 337-359, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    effects of welfare programs; general welfare programs; immigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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