Immigrant Welfare Receipt Across Europe

The issue of welfare receipt by immigrants is highly controversial across Europe. In this paper we assess whether immigrants are more likely to receive welfare payments relative to natives across a range of European countries. Using the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 2007, we find very little evidence that immigrants are indeed more likely to receive such payments when all payments are considered together. This is true whether we use raw data or regression analysis in which we control for relevant characteristics We do find evidence of higher rates of poverty among immigrants. When combined with the results on welfare receipt, this raises a question over the effectiveness of welfare systems in protecting immigrants from poverty across Europe

EU Enlargement and Ireland's Labour Market

Ireland, along with Sweden and the UK, allowed full access to its labour market to the citizens of the accession countries when the EU enlarged in May 2004. Given the limited number of countries that opened up and the rapid pace of economic growth in Ireland around 2004, a significant inflow was expected. However, the rate of inflow exceeded all expectations. Based on census information, the number of EU10 nationals living in Ireland grew from around 10,000 in 2002 to 120,000 in 2006. Data on inflows suggests that this number could have reached 200,000 by 2008 or 4.5 percent of the population. The EU10 immigrants have very high employment rates and also have levels of education that are comparable to the native labour force in Ireland. However, they appear to earn considerably less than the native labour force and also to be in lower grade occupations. They have impacted positively on the Irish economy in terms of GNP growth. This is because wages grew more slowing in Ireland than would otherwise have been the case as a result of the labour supply increase brought about by this immigration flow.EU enlargement, EU new member states, Ireland, immigration

Work at Older Age in Ireland. ESRI Research Bulletin 2019/16

It is well established that population ageing will put upward pressure on the costs of public programmes such as pensions, healthcare and long-term care. One proposed route through which the sustainability of these public programmes can be enhanced is through extended working lives. In 2016 in Ireland nearly 17 per cent of men aged 65+ were working, and 5 per cent of women. A notable feature of older age working in Ireland and other countries is the large share of employment, particularly male employment, that is comprised of the self-employed (over half of men aged 65-74 in employment in Ireland are self-employed). The decision to continue to work in older age involves a complex interaction between health, family and caring responsibilities, and financial resources. Here, we summarise the findings of two recent papers that examined the role of financial resources, and in particular, supplementary pension cover, in determining work at older ages in Ireland

Immigrants and Welfare Programmes: Exploring the Interactions between Immigrant Characteristics, Immigrant Welfare Dependence and Welfare Policy

The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the papers within the economics literature that have examined the questions of immigrant welfare use and the responsiveness of immigrants to the incentives created by welfare systems. While our focus is largely on papers looking at the European case, we also draw on studies from the United States, in particular on issues where the European literature is thin. One set of papers asks whether immigrants who are more likely to use welfare are attracted to more generous welfare states. The results from these papers are not clear-cut. Another set of papers asks if immigrants use welfare more intensively than natives and if they assimilate out of or into welfare participation. In most cases, the unadjusted data shows higher use of welfare by immigrants although for some countries, for example Germany, this difference can be explained by differences in characteristics. Yet another set of papers finds that the rate of welfare use by existing migrants can influence the welfare use of newly arrived co-nationals. We illustrate some of these issues by looking at immigrant welfare use in Ireland and the UK. Immigrants in the UK appear to use welfare more intensively than natives but the opposite appears to be the case in Ireland.Ireland, welfare participation, immigrants, U.K.

Returning to the Question of a Wage Premium for Returning Migrants

Using data from a large-scale survey of employees in Ireland, we estimate the extent to which people who have emigrated from Ireland and returned earn more relative to comparable people who have never lived abroad. In so doing, we are testing the hypothesis that migration can be part of a process of human capital formation. We find through OLS estimation that returners earn 7 percent more than comparable stayers. We test for the presence of self-selection bias in this estimate but the tests suggest that the premium is related to returner status. The premium holds for both genders, is higher for people with post-graduate degrees and for people who migrated beyond the EU to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The results show how emigration can be positive for a source country when viewed in a longer term context.brain circulation, brain drain, Ireland, return migration

Estimating the Impact of Immigration in Ireland

The core objective of this paper is to review the research which has been undertaken on estimating the economic impacts of immigration in Ireland. By way of providing context, the paper begins with an overview of Ireland’s recent experience of immigration and of the research which has been conducted on the associated issues such as the characteristics and experiences of immigrants. As the approach taken to estimating the impacts of immigration is based on simulations using a model of Ireland’s labour market, details of the model are provided. Results from two studies are then presented. One study tended to show unambiguously positive outcomes, such as increased national output and reduced earnings inequality. However, a second study called into question the earlier findings on earnings inequality. While immigrants in Ireland are generally high-skilled, many were found to be working in occupations below their skill levels. Hence, high-skilled immigrants may be competing in the labour market with low-skilled natives. Accounting for this in the simulation exercises showed how immigration may have negatively impacted upon the earnings of low-skilled workers in Ireland.Immigration, Ireland, wages

Immigrant Welfare Receipt across Europe

The issue of welfare receipt by immigrants is highly controversial across Europe. In this paper, we assess whether immigrants are more likely to receive welfare payments relative to natives across a range of European countries. Using the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 2007, we find very little evidence that immigrants are indeed more likely to receive such payments when all payments are considered together. This is true whether we use raw data or regression analysis in which we control for relevant characteristics. We do find evidence of higher rates of poverty among immigrants. When combined with the results on welfare receipt, this raises a question over the effectiveness of welfare systems in protecting immigrants from poverty across Europe.immigrants, welfare, Europe

Using a Census to Assess the Reliability of a National Household Survey for Migration Research: The Case of Ireland

Much research has been conducted on immigration into Ireland in recent years using data from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), the official source for labour market data in Ireland. As it is known that the QNHS undercounts immigrants in Ireland, a concern exists over whether the profile of immigrants being provided is accurate. For example, QNHS-based research has shown that immigrants in Ireland are a highly educated group. However, if it is the case that those who are missed by the QNHS are more heavily drawn from among low-skilled immigrants, then the profile being reported and used in other research may be inaccurate. In this paper, we use the Irish Census of 2006 to assess the reliability of the profile of immigrants provided by the QNHS by comparing the characteristics of immigrants in both datasets. In general, we find that the QNHS does indeed provide a reliable picture and that earlier findings on the education levels of immigrants in Ireland hold.migration research, Ireland, census, household survey

An Analysis of the Journal Article Output of Irish-based Economists, 1970 to 2001

This paper provides, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the journal article output of Irish-based economists over a thirty-year period. Using EconLit data, and supplementing where necessary, we provide details of the journals wherein Irish-based economists have published, provide details of the publishing histories of high volume publishers and discuss the evolving productivity profile of Irish-based economists. Our evidence shows that in general Irish-based economists have greatly increased the levels of output in the 1990s, but that this may have been at the expense of quality.

The Impact of Ireland's Recession on the Labour Market Outcomes of its Immigrants

In the mid 2000s Ireland experienced a large inflow of immigrants, partly in response to strong economic growth but also in response to its decision to allow full access to its labour market when EU expansion occurred in May 2004. Between 2004 and 2007, the proportion of non-nationals living in Ireland almost doubled, increasing from 7.7 to 13.1 percent. Between 2008 and 2009, Ireland experienced one of the most acute downturns in economic activity in the industrialised world, with a cumulative fall in Gross National Product of close to 14 percent. In this paper, we assess how this downturn has impacted upon the employment outcomes of non-nationals relative to natives. We find huge job losses among immigrants, with an annual rate of job loss of close to 20 percent in 2009, compared to 7 percent for natives. A higher rate of job loss for immigrants is found to remain when we control for factors such as age and education. We also show how an outflow of non-nationals is occurring. The findings have many implications. In particular, the results point to economic vulnerability for immigrants. However, they also point to a potential macroeconomic benefit to Ireland in terms of a flexible labour supply adjustment.recession, Ireland, immigration