The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has published a report looking at the likelihood of immigrants to receive welfare benefits, compared to natives. In line with previous research, the report’s findings suggest that welfare dependence is mainly driven by demographic characteristics such as age, gender, family size and education level.

The report examines the likelihood of immigrants and natives to receive both contributory benefits and non-contributory benefits. Contributory benefits are those that require individual contributions in order to have entitlement to benefits. Non-contributory benefits are not dependent on contributions of the beneficiary.

Overall in the EU countries examined, immigrants from outside the EU were less likely to access contributory benefits and more likely to access non-contributory benefits than natives. But in most countries, the difference between immigrants and natives disappears for both kinds of benefits once factors like age, family composition and educational attainment are taken into account.