No welfare magnets – free movement and cross-border welfare in Germany and Denmark compared

ABSTRACT

A ‘dually open’ free movement system has evolved in the European Union (EU), granting EU citizens the right to free movement within the Union as well as cross-border welfare rights. Some scholarly literature and public debates have characterised the system as corrosive to the nationally organised welfare state, which will become a ‘magnet’ for the European poor. This paper examines how the German and Danish welfare states have responded to the ‘dual open’ system and its outcomes in terms of EU citizens’ take-up rate of non-contributory benefits between 2007 and 2015. We show that the domestic responses were mostly restrictive and that outcomes remained rather stable. Our findings do not support the welfare magnet thesis but instead identify a tendency to a bifurcated social protection system for EU citizens in Germany.

KEYWORDS:

• Bifurcated social protection
• European Union
• free movement of people
• welfare magnet thesis
• welfare state

Acknowledgements

For helpful comments we are grateful to Michael Blauberger, Susanne K. Schmidt, and the two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributors

Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen is professor of political science at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Benjamin Werner is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen, Germany.

ORCID

Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2113-0950

Benjamin Werner http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8528-9840

Notes

1. For the description of the main legislative acts and ECJ interpretations governing the dually open free movement system, see Schmidt et al. (2018) as well as Davies (2018).

2. Different data were collected for our empirical analysis. Judicial responses are analysed by means of national court cases and quasi-judicial administrative decisions. Political and administrative responses are examined by means of qualitative interviews with key respondents as well as examination of official and unofficial documents. In total, we conducted 28 interviews with key actors in different parts of the social administration in the two countries. The analysis of outcomes draws on descriptive statistics from the German statistical offices as well as registered data collected for the Danish case and Eurostat. Further data information is provided in the analytical sections.

3. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 February 2014, p. 9.

4. Bundessozialgericht, decisions of 3 December 2015, B 4 AS 59/13 R, B 4 AS 44/15 R and B 4 AS 43/15 R.

5. Interviews with several members of the German social administration, conducted in April and May 2016.

6. ‘Gesetz zur Regelung von Ansprüchen ausländischer Personen in der Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuchende und in der Sozialhilfe’, adopted on 16 December 2016.

7. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (2015), p. 22, 5 December.

8. Joint letter to Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, 27 July 2017.

9. See the Danish State Administration’s webpage information on ‘Residence in Denmark for Union citizens and EEA nationals’ (accessed August 2017).

10. Interviews with Danish State Administration and municipalities, September 2015.

11. See Agency for the Danish students’ Grants and Loans Scheme 2013. ‘EU-dom og udlændinges ret til SU-Genoptagelse af sager’.

12. See the agreement ‘Aftale om reform af SU-systemet og rammerne for studiegennemførelse’, 18 April 2013.

13. Interview with Danish civil servant, May 2016.

14. Ministry for Higher Education and Science, May 2016.

15. These data are publicly available, either directly on the webpages of these institutions (https://www.destatis.de and https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de) or on request.

16. Latest data available.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the NORFACE ERA-NET (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe Network) Welfare State Futures Programme, Grant number 462-13-009 (TransJudFare Project).