The potential economic benefits of education of migrants in the EU

While international mobility has developed into a major driver of population change in the European Union, people with immigrant backgrounds in the Member States continue to be placed in disadvantaged socio-economic positions. They are often hampered by a lack of host country-specific skills and knowledge.

Many native-born children of immigrants – the “second generation” – obtain lower levels of educational achievement than those of non-immigrant background. In consequence, migrants tend to show lower labour market activity rates and income levels compared with people without immigrant backgrounds. They also tend to be exposed to higher risks of unemployment and depend on social welfare more often.

These stylized facts indicate that the provision of proper education to people with immigrant backgrounds is an important element in policies for building a more inclusive society in Europe. It may also help enhance the competitiveness of the European knowledge-based economies.

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the potential economic returns to the education of migrants at the aggregate level. It covers the current state of economics research regarding returns in three different areas: economic output and growth, labour markets, and governmental budgets.

The challenge in doing so is that populations with immigrant backgrounds and their economic stance are hugely diverse across Member States, and quality empirical research findings on the topic in sum are still fairly limited, fragmented, and case-specific. Hence there is little scope for meaningful cross-country comparisons and all-encompassing cost-benefit analyses in this field.

Author

Holger Bonin

Cite as

European Commission: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) and Bonin, H., The potential economic benefits of education of migrants in the EU, Publications Office of the European Union, 2017, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/276860