WELFARE TOURISM (2)

At a time when more and more politicians are getting hot under the collar about so-called welfare tourism, so more and more facts are being put on the table which show that immigrants, on average, benefit host countries.

Denmark's Finance Ministry has just released figures for a group of 10 East European countries, whose citizens had permanent residency in Denmark from 2009-11; Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Taxes from these people in these years were kr.1.7 billion, kr.1.9 billion and kr.2.2 billion respectively; while benefits paid out were kr.0.6 billion, kr.0.8 billion and kr.0.9 billion, thereby giving a tidy profit in each of the three years.

True, the figures do not include the cost of public services such as hospitals and schools. However, on the first, it is unlikely that working-age immigrants use medical services very much; while on the second, the marginal cost of providing a school place is quite low. Even allowing for extra expenses here, it is likely that the net benefit to Denmark is positive.

None of which will stop the politicians, of course.

Walter Blotscher