ESRI: Immigrants Contributed More Fiscally Than Irish-Born Over 20 Years
A new ESRI report shows immigrants made a higher fiscal contribution than Irish-born residents over the last 20 years, consistently having a positive impact. A separate study found no general pattern of immigrants being more likely to receive welfare, with some rates lower than for Irish natives. Both reports were published Wednesday.
A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) indicates that immigrants have made a higher fiscal contribution than Irish-born residents over the past two decades. Research consistently finds that immigrants in Ireland have a more positive fiscal impact than natives, even during economic downturns. During a crash, when both groups had a negative fiscal impact, the negative impact of Irish-born residents was significantly greater than that of migrants.
The report, published Wednesday, notes that migrants in Ireland are younger and more likely to be employed, contributing to their positive fiscal impact. Non-EU migrants, in particular, show very high employment and third-level education rates. This contrasts with many other EU countries where non-EU migrants often have a lower fiscal impact than non-migrants. The fiscal impact of migration in Ireland is consistently positive, unlike global estimates which vary between -1 per cent and +2 per cent of GDP.
A separate ESRI study, also released Wednesday, found no general pattern of immigrants being more likely to receive welfare payments than Irish-born residents. Using Central Statistics Office data from 2014 to 2024, the analysis focused on unemployment, sickness/disability, and family/children-related welfare payments. While 61 per cent of immigrants received at least one welfare payment in 2024 compared to 56 per cent of Irish-born, there was no difference in unemployment-related payments (9 per cent for both groups). Immigrants had a lower rate of disability-related payments (4 per cent) than Irish natives (6 per cent).
The study also revealed regional differences: unemployment-related payment rates from 2014 to 2024 were 16 per cent for Irish-born, 13 per cent for Western European immigrants, 12 per cent for Asian immigrants, and 21 per cent for both Eastern European and African immigrants. Both studies were funded by the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.