This is a timely volume of essays which considers the implications of migration for European welfare systems, and provides a useful reminder both that the UK is not alone in grappling with these issues, and that simply adopting a more ‘European’ or contributory approach will not provide a magic bullet to respond to economic and political pressures on the welfare system.
Some on the left worry that immigration undermines support for welfare spending. In fact, evidence on this is mixed, and, as a number of the authors point out, the relationship between immigration and support for welfare is a contingent one – changes to the institutions of the welfare state itself, and different approaches to politics, can significantly reduce the potential tension.
What does seem clear is that sequencing and starting points matter. Immigration into countries which already have well-established and supported welfare systems does not seem to significantly undermine them. This is in part because such systems often exist alongside highly regulated labour markets which reduce the demand for migrant labour, particularly low-skilled and low-paid migrant labour. However, immigration into countries which lack well-supported welfare systems may inhibit their development. This is both because immigration affects public attitudes and because the lack of effective welfare systems, along with lightly regulated labour markets, creates demand for low-paid labour – for example, to sustain social care systems without high levels of state investment. Indeed, migration helps such systems to survive by providing this low-paid labour.
This book also demonstrates that free movement of labour within the European Union makes this a three-dimensional problem for policymakers. While welfare systems vary widely across Europe, migration needs and challenges do too, and decisions made in one country, on either welfare or migration policy, affect others. European policymakers must consider not only the complicated interplay of welfare and migration policy within their own countries, but also their relative positions within the EU.
What does all this mean for the UK? Although this book provides much useful food for thought, it does not provide easy answers. Ultimately, questions of migration and welfare policy boil down to politics – difficult trade-offs between different priorities and different interests. There is a need for a healthy dose of realism too: the UK cannot turn back the clock, nor halt immigration. It is also clear that the responsibility for finding progressive solutions which reconcile migration and welfare in the UK will fall to politicians of the left. The current government’s rhetoric about ‘strivers’ and ‘skivers’ undermines exactly the kind of social solidarity that is required if welfare states are to thrive in an era of immigration.
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Sarah Mulley is associate director at IPPR
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Europe’s Immigration Challenge: Reconciling Work, Welfare and Mobility
Elena Jurado and Grete Brochmann (eds)
IB Tauris | 232pp | £14.99