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The application of the European migration and asylum pact in Portugal, without more liberal measures on the entry of immigrants, will lead to a crisis in public accounts and an increase in taxes, according to a study released on Wednesday.
Macau News Agency reports that the authors of the Nova SBE study say, “Restructuring immigration will lead to an increase in public spending, a deterioration in public accounts and a subsequent impact on public debt, or a combination of all three.”
The Nova SBE study evaluates policies from an intergenerational perspective.
The study aimed to assess the impact of the European pact on Portugal. The authors concluded that “future generations will see their choices limited due to a more restricted public budget”, considering that “reducing immigration would deteriorate social security balances in the short term and have negative effects on pension provision in the medium and long term.
“Assuming that the government transposes the Migration Pact into national law as it currently stands, then it would have to make a decision: reduce future pensions in real value or make greater transfers from the central budget to social security. “
In Portugal’s case, “maintaining the current flow of immigration, it would be necessary to increase taxes by almost 15% and if the country were to adopt an extreme situation of not allowing any more immigrants, then it would have to increase taxes by 20%”.
The report maintains that immigrants can have a positive impact on public finances. However, everything depends on their integration into the labour market. Integration can be achieved through a “low-cost policy, through an information leaflet or a mobile phone app” with information on rights.
