International Migration and Falling into the Income ‘Safety Net’:
| Published date | 01 June 1986 |
| Date | 01 June 1986 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1986.tb00796.x |
| Author | BJÖRN GUSTAFSSON |
International Migration and Falling into
the Income ‘Safety Net’:
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE AMONG FOREIGN CITIZENS IN SWEDEN
BJORN GUSTAFSSON**
INTRODUCTION
Many societies have for centuries had public regulations that have functioned as an
‘income-safety net’. Earlier, these means-tested transfers were, typically, called poor relief.
In the modem welfare state the names have often been changed to ‘supplementary
benefits’,
‘Sozialhilfe’,
or
‘social assistance’, but the basic functions are still the same. In
relation to other transfer payments to the household the
sums
paid out for the ‘safety-net’
are small. But there is another reason why the size of the population, as well as its
compostition, may be of interest. It indicates shortcomings in public policy.
In this paper we shall show that in one country, Sweden, international immigrants
constitute a larger fraction of the part of the population which falls into the ‘safety-net’.
*
This work was supported by a grant from the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
(Delegation for Social Research).
I
would like
to
thank, among others, Gunnar Olofsson and Stein
Ringen for helpful comments
on
an earlier draft.
**
Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Goteborg, Sweden.
46
1
One ob-iect ofthe article is to give a statistical overview of the subject; another is to discuss
reasons why international migrants receive social assistance more frequently than others.
The latter leads to the formulation of econometric models and the estimation for
immigrants with different backgrounds.
The scope ofthe study is limited by the following: We do not pose the wider question of
whether or not immigrants receive transfers as a whole and pay taxes in ways that are
different from those of other groups. In fact, several studies indicate a redistributionfrom
immigrants to the native population through the public sector.’) By international
immigrants we are here referring to foreign citizens because of the statistical information
available. The concepts of international migrant and foreign citizen overlap, although not
entirely.2) The literature on international migration and falling into the ‘safety-net’ seems
to be meagre.3)
A
U.S.
study4) shows that the average level of transfers is higher among
families headed by immigrants which, in turn, is almost entirely the result of social
insurance payments, not welfare payments, caused by the higher average age of family
members in immigrant groups. Some Swedish studies report figures for social assistance
among immigrants, but no elaborate analyses. There is, however, a considerable empirical
literature on intra-national migration and
elfa are.^)
In this literature, which mainly
concentrates on the
U.S.,
two interrelated questions are posed:
1)
Do
differences in welfare
generosity between jurisdictions affect migration? 2)
Do
migrants affect welfare
generosity? But the question ofwhether
or
not and why migration affects the propensity to
fall into the ‘safety-net’ does not seem to be posed.
The paper is arranged in the following way: The system of social assistance in Sweden is
briefly described in the next section. Section
3.
examines social assistance to immigrants
in Sweden, using different data sources. A discussion of the reasons why immigrants
receive social assistance more frequently than others is posed in Section 4. Section
5
contains a model specification, while results of estimations are reported in Section
6.
A
discussion of the results is provided in Section
7.
THE SYSTEM
OF
SOCIAL
ASSISTANCE
IN
SWEDEN
Social assistance in Sweden is most often given in cash, but may also be given in kind. The
payments are based on an assessment of monthly income. The sums are most often small
in relation to other incomes of the recipient. Most often assistance is paid out in some, but
not all months of a year. Calculations on a yearly basis show that, on the average, social
assistance amounts to about
10
per cent of the disposable income of the relief case. In
relation to all transfers from the public sector, the sums that are paid out as social
assistance are small, amounting to two per cent in 1982.
The system of social assistance has always been highly decentralized, with the
municipalities being responsible for the provision. The law spells out in general terms who
is entitled to receive assistance. The right to assistance is not limited to persons residing in
the municipality,
so
that persons temporarily visiting may also be entitled. Thus, in
principle, tourists and recent immigrants are not treated differently from the native
population. The criteria an applicant must meet are not totally formalized. However, an
income test is formalized in the guide-lines decided upon by the political bodies in the
municipality.
Typically, four to five per cent of the Swedish population live in families which have
received social assistance at least once during a year. This rate can, since the mid-twenties,
be explained by macroeconomic performance and changes in the social insurance system.
The effects of macroeconomic performance are concentrated to those who are still
economically active. Increases in the level ofthe old age security
-
the income level
all
aged
Swedes are guaranteed
-
lower the rate.6)
462
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