Immigration and the Social Welfare State in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland: A comparative meta-study

Author(s) : Wanda Spahl, Sabine Weiss

Source : https://www.addendum.org/files/uploads/2017/11/Immigration-and-the-Social-Welfare-State-in-Austria-Germany-and-Switzerland-A-comparative-meta-study-2017-EN.pdf

Abstract:

The escalation of the Syrian war in 2014 as well as ongoing violent conflicts in countries in the Middle East and Africa resulted in high numbers of people fleeing their homes. While the majority of refuge-seeking persons are internally displaced or reside in neighbouring countries (e.g. Lebanon, Jordan), many travelled further, resulting in high numbers of asylum applications in Europe. The inflow of more than one million asylum seekers to Europe in 2015 sparked debates about moral obligations, identity, cultural unity, integration requirements, the role of religion and diversity. This study aims to provide an overview of recent publications on the effects of immigration on the welfare state in the host countries. To address the research question What are the economic effects of immigration on the social welfare state in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, a meta-synthesis of selected studies and an extensive scoping review were conducted. In total, twenty studies – most of them published in 2016 and 2017 – were selected as relevant and then examined in detail. This included six Austrian, eleven German and three Swiss publications. Furthermore, insights from studies examining effects of immigration in other countries were taken into consideration for comparison and contrast.