Last updated August 2024. When referring to this page, please use the following citation: Koning, E.A. (2024). The IESPI Dataset – Key findings. University of Guelph, www.iespi.ca/key-findings/.
This page presents key descriptive findings from the IESPI database. For more elaborate analyses of the data, consult the studies listed on the ‘Publications’ page of this website.
Overall levels of welfare exclusion
The extent to which immigrants are excluded from social programs differs dramatically from one country to another. Welfare systems are highly inclusionary today in Sweden, Portugal, and Norway, while they are the most exclusionary among the countries under consideration in Malta, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Average changes over time
On average, levels of immigrant welfare exclusion have not changed dramatically over time. The welfare systems of the 22 countries included in the IESPI database became more inclusionary from the 1990s until the 2000s but have remained at similar levels since the 2010s. It is also worth noting that there is little sign of policy convergence: the differences between countries have remained relatively stable over time, as illustrated by the grey area in the graph below.
Changes by country
The aggregate trend in the previous graph obfuscates different trajectories of change in different countries. In some countries (Austria, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain), social programs have become consistently more inclusionary. Other countries (Canada, Luxembourg, Sweden) have also undergone an inclusionary development, although at a more modest pace. In a third set of countries (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Switzerland), policies initially became more inclusionary but this trend was halted or reversed around 2010. The social programs of three other countries (the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States), finally, have become more exclusionary over time.
Changes by program
The trajectory of change over time has also been very different for different social programs. Health care programs and active labor market policies have gradually become more inclusionary, whereas social assistance policies have on average become more exclusionary over time. The other four programs captured in the IESPI (tax-paid pensions, contributory pensions, contributory unemployment programs, and housing benefits) have undergone comparatively little change over time in their average level of immigrant exclusion.
