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TransJudFare Puzzle Piece: No Welfare Tourism in Denmark

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by Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen (TransJudFare)

As part of the TransJudFare team, Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen from University of Copenhagen wrote a puzzle piece to disseminate recent findings from the project to Danish media and stakeholders. The findings were featured in two articles in the Danish newspaper Politiken, one on the myth of welfare tourism and one on the access of EU citizens to the Danish study grant, as well as the Danish radio, among other sources. The puzzle piece summarizes the rather complicated rules regulating free movement of persons in the EU and EU citizens’ right to cross-border welfare.

It then zooms in on the Danish case and on basis of a forthcoming article in the Journal of European Social Policy summarizes the implementation of the rules in Denmark as well as the outcomes hereof in terms of EU citizens’ take-up rate of central welfare benefits: child benefits, unemployment benefits, social assistance and study grants between 2002 to the end of 2013. It also examines the years of residence in DK when EU citizens receive the examined benefits. It is shown that although rules are dynamic, outcomes remain stable over an examined period of 12 years. The puzzle piece, however, also identifies a considerable increase in the take-up rate of Danish study grants and discusses solutions hereto. The puzzle piece is a new initiative from the Department of Political Science of University of Copenhagen to disseminate research results in a more interactive manner, hereby intending to shorten the distance between research, decision-makers and stakeholders.

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