One of the main topics of this year's European Parliament elections will certainly be the issue of migration. The fact that immigrants cannot be automatically lumped together is demonstrated by a study entitled MIGRATION AND THE SOCIAL NETWORK, which examines the economic impact of this phenomenon on public budgets in the Netherlands.
A team of experts led by Jan van de Beek, who holds a PhD in the economics of migration, analysed statistical data over 25 years, more precisely from 1995 to 2019. The study shows that public spending related to migration averaged €17 billion per year, or €400 billion over 25 years, which is roughly 10 trillion kronor (the Netherlands' GDP in 2021 will exceed $1,000 billion for the first time). The last time the country examined the problem was twenty years ago, because in 2003 such calculations were labelled racist.
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