Immigrant social inclusion in Europe: A descriptive investigation

Dionyssis Balourdos,Maria Petraki

doi:10.7163/eu21.2019.37.7

Abstract

This paper represents an empirical investigation into the risk of poverty or social exclusion facing immigrants across Europe. The methodological approach is based on the set of ‘Zaragoza indicators’, in the domain of social inclusion, together with some proposed additional ones: income distribution and monetary poverty, material deprivation, in-work poverty, child poverty and risk of poverty or social exclusion. The main research question concerns whether immigrants/third-country nationals and nationals constitute two rather distinct groups in terms of exposure to poverty or social exclusion. Mainly using data from the EU-SILC Survey, we find that third-country nationals are severely disadvantaged in most countries, and are occasionally exposed to risks multiple times higher than nationals. There are European countries with similar immigrant populations in which these immigrants experience less favorable outcomes compared to other populations in other countries. Comparative analysis allows us to test the significance of different welfare systems in protecting vulnerable groups such as immigrants, using Eurostat statistics and the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). In a cross-country analysis, taking demographic and macro-economic differences into account, results show that the impact of social expenditure on poverty is not significant when it comes to protecting third-country nationals.

Highlights

Immigration is once again at the forefront of policy discourses in many European countries, and ranks among the greatest concerns in European policy debates, in recent years especially
The indicator has been applied to various theories of welfare-state change, whereby economic growth, rising social needs and modernisation processes are supposed to affect the welfare provision of affluent democracies, probably negatively (Otto, 2018). This point of view requires a more specific, operationalised and testable version of the original research question, asking whether a member state that could be described by a high Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) score and presumably with well-developed immigrant integration/social inclusion policies and a more generous welfare system associated with high social expenditure, presents relatively limited risk of poverty or social exclusion among third-country nationals (TCNs)
Our results suggest that state income transfers may prove an effective policy instrument when it comes to alleviating poverty; but only for some nationals, and not for immigrants of non-European Union (EU) member state nationality

Summary

Introduction

Immigration is once again at the forefront of policy discourses in many European countries, and ranks among the greatest concerns in European policy debates, in recent years especially. The indicator has been applied to various theories of welfare-state change, whereby economic growth, rising social needs and modernisation processes are supposed to affect the welfare provision of affluent democracies, probably negatively (Otto, 2018) This point of view requires a more specific, operationalised and testable version of the original research question, asking whether a member state that could be described by a high MIPEX score and presumably with well-developed immigrant integration/social inclusion policies and a more generous welfare system associated with high social expenditure, presents relatively limited risk of poverty or social exclusion among TCNs.. Countries with high MIPEX scores, like Sweden, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, or Denmark, leave TCNs almost ‘unprotected’ from the risk of poverty or social exclusion, but protect nationals rather well; as is indicated by the relatively low observed risk rates (Fig. 3 and 4) It seems that in these countries the common presence of immigrants or even refugees appears to ensure greater restrictiveness in allowing social protection..

50 Difference in rates

Findings

Conclusions