Abstract

This study focuses on the welfare take-up by EU and extra-EU migrants versus natives in Western Europe during the period preceding Brexit (2018-19). Among the methodological innovations proposed in respect to previous studies, there are a narrow focus on the eligible populations, the use of EU-LFS to exclude exported benefits, and an inclusive definition of migrant household. All analyses are replicated for each available EU15 country within two separated samples, one composed by unemployed individuals to assess unemployment benefits in EU-LFS, and the other by households with children to assess family benefits in EU-SILC. Both EU and Extra-EU migrants emerge to have a similar (or lower) take-up as compared to natives, being such result confirmed among the eligible populations for both benefits, before and after controlling for demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The idea that migrants threaten welfare sustainability, leading to several steps back from (social) Europe, found no support in micro-data.