مهاجرت و نقل و انتقالات شبکه ای در بخش دولتی در دانمارک

This paper studies how immigrants affect public finance at different levels of government in Denmark. Non-Western immigrants are not well integrated into the labour market, many are outside the labour force altogether, and unemployment is high among those in the labour force. The lack of integration means that the revenue from taxes paid by immigrants is lower, and the transfers received by the immigrants from the public sector are higher, than for natives of the same age. The net transfer to the public sector is negative but effects differ between different parts of the public sector. The effects are most negative for the municipalities, who therefore have incentives to attempt to redirect immigrants to other municipalities.

Production during working life must not only meet personal needs but also consumption for people not producing, including the children and the elderly. This is made possible by redistribution among generations, in three ways: via the family (for example, parents who provide for their children), via the market (for example, working individuals who invest in pension insurance) and via the public sector (two examples are publicly financed schools and a pension system funded by tax revenues). Immigration influences redistribution via the public sector. This paper is concerned with redistribution between natives and immigrants through the different levels of government of the public sector. Decisions that influence immigration or immigrants made by one government entity may influence the budgets of other public authorities, and may influence their opinions and policies regarding immigration and immigrants. There are therefore good political–economy reasons to calculate the net transfers for different parts of the public sector. The calculations have been made in only a few cases. See Smith and Edmonston, 1997 and Smith and Edmonston, 1998 for the U.S. and Wadensjö and Orrje (2002) for an earlier study of Denmark. In this paper the public sector in Denmark is divided into four parts: the state sector, the municipalities, the counties, and the unemployment insurance scheme.1 The calculations are for 1996 and 2001, years for which we have access to detailed distribution of taxes, transfer payments, and public consumption and investment in the different subsectors.

For redistribution to and from immigrants, this study provides clear results for different parts of the public sector in Denmark. The redistribution to non-Western immigrants takes place above all from the municipalities and from the unemployment insurance scheme. For those who have lived in the country for a shorter time, the transfers through the unemployment insurance scheme are small, and the transfers come instead from the state sector (integration subsidies, social allowances, housing allowances). There is considerable redistribution among municipalities, meaning that municipalities with many immigrant inhabitants are not singly responsible for net transfers to the immigrants but rather that the transfers are borne to a large extent by all municipalities. However, it is likely that the municipalities with the most immigrants bear a good deal of the costs themselves, especially some years after an immigrant's arrival in Denmark. This can give municipalities economic incentives to try to redirect immigrants to other municipalities