A Study confirms: Refugees aren’t economically beneficial, they are mostly unemployed and cost billions of euros

A new study by the Expert Group for Public Economics Studies (ESO), shows how immigration costs Sweden billions of euros per year, news outlet SVT reports. 

The ESO study examined the employment rate of refugees between 1983 and 2015. It shows how the employment rate of refugees has gradually deteriorated. In the 1980’s, integration was reported to have been significantly faster than in the 1990’s and beyond.

“We can find that it has always been difficult to put refugees into employment,” says Joakim Ruist, one of the study’s authors.

The study forecasts the long-term consequences of immigration on Sweden’s public finances. Both in the short and long term, migrants will cost Sweden billions of euros, the study shows.

Although the average immigrant contributes to society, this does not weigh up to the initial costs and costs of the pension. The net cost of the average “refugee” will therefore be a total of 74,000 Swedish crowns (7,184 euros) per year.

As 830,000 migrants came to Sweden as asylum seekers, the country pays 61.4 billion crowns (5.96 billion euros) every single year for them.

The study’s findings aren’t very different from other projections. Well known German economist, Hans-Werner Sinn, said earlier that Germany’s migrants are underqualified and can never ‘pay back what they have received from the welfare state’.

According to Sinn, Germany’s migrants could cost the country 1 trillion euros during their lifetimes. In the Netherlands a similar tendency can be seen. At least 90% of refugees are still unemployed after living for 2.5 years in the country. There are examples from Switzerland and Austria as well.

It is not a surprise that refugee, migrants or asylum seekers cost European countries billions of euros. While they don’t bring profit and mostly live on benefits, Europeans necessarily have to work longer and pay more taxes.