WELFARE TOURISM

Welfare tourism is a big issue in Denmark. According to politicians, hordes of mainly East European citizens are flocking here in order to take advantage of the world's most generous welfare state. Backed by an increasingly assertive European Court of Justice, they are merely enforcing their E.U. rights. But they are also bankrupting the system they are feeding off.

I have never believed this. The basic problem with the Danish welfare state is that there are too few paying for it and too many reliant on it, notably pensioners. The number of those dwarfs that of clever Poles and Balts knowledgeable enough to pick their way through the Danish bureaucratic maze, and willing to live far away from their homeland. But the story sells well, particularly when times are hard.

Now, however, there are some facts on the table. The European Commission has just published a study that shows that jobless E.U. migrants represent only about 1% of the total E.U. population, and that the proportion of E.U. migrants amongst welfare beneficiaries is under 5%. Although the figures have an element of estimation in them, the overall message is clear; mass welfare tourism is a myth.

That won't stop politicians from pretending otherwise, of course. But that's another story ....

Walter Blotscher