Court allows Germany to withhold benefits from some EU migrants

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that EU member states can refuse to pay welfare benefits to "economically inactive" migrants from within the EU.

The Luxembourg-based court, which interprets matters of EU law, decided that Germany was within its rights to withhold unemployment benefits from a Romanian citizen living in Leipzig, on the basis that she had not worked and was not seeking employment.

The court said that, as she did not have sufficient resources to support herself, she could not claim right of residence in Germany under the terms of the EU directive on free movement of citizens, and therefore could not invoke the directive’s principle of non-discrimination.

Migrants’ entitlement to benefits is a controversial issue in several EU countries, and Germany’s position in the case had been supported by the governments of Ireland, Denmark, and the UK.

Manfred Weber, chair of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, commented that the court’s ruling showed that the EU could "avoid social benefits tourism without violating the free movement of citizens."

Our author Corrado Giulietti has written about the welfare magnet hypothesis, which suggests that generous benefits systems are attractive to migrants. He argues that, on the contrary, the evidence shows that "immigration decisions are not made on the basis of the relative generosity of the receiving nation’s social benefits," and that in some countries "immigrants exhibit less welfare dependency than natives, despite facing a higher risk of poverty."

Read more on this story here. The court’s full judgment can be read here. 

Related articles:
The welfare magnet hypothesis and welfare take-up of migrants, by Corrado Giulietti
Unemployment benefits and unemployment, by Robert Moffitt
What determines the net fiscal effects of migration? by Holger Hinte