Shaping migration policy based on facts

Myths keep cropping up in the public debate on migration. For example, it is claimed that politicians support immigrants more than natives. "Immigrants have a positive effect on Austrian value creation as employees and consumers. This is associated with additional public revenue that exceeds the additional expenditure in the period 2013-2020. The positive contribution per capita is slightly higher than for natives. The statement that politicians support immigrants more than the Austrian population is therefore inaccurate," explains Johannes Berger, Head of the Labor Market and Social Security research department at the economic research institute EcoAustria.

EcoAustria's analysis based on the general equilibrium model PuMA focuses on the fiscal effects of migration from 2013 to 2018 for immigrants from the EU and third countries as well as for refugees. "The contribution to the national budget is positive for all migration groups except for asylum migration. However, higher support for refugees is not due to more advantageous individual entitlements, but is the result of disadvantageous labor market integration," says Ludwig Strohner, Head of Public Finance Research at EcoAustria.

The study by Berger and Strohner concludes that labor market policy instruments should therefore be continuously evaluated and the labor market integration of persons entitled to asylum should be stepped up accordingly. The study is part of the book "Migration and integration - facts or myths? Seventeen buzzwords put to the test", published by Graz-based sociologist Max Haller. In other articles, migration researcher Gudrun Biffl examines the displacement of Austrians by immigrants on the labor market and economists Jörn Kleinert and Daniel Reiter examine Austria's absorption capacity.