Refugees are a major source of (low-cost) employment and other commercial opportunities. In May last year, the Tent Foundation and Open Political Economy Network brought out what they called the first comprehensive, international study of how refugees can contribute to advanced economies. In the report, Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment That Yields Economic Dividends, the organisation used data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ascertain the economic impact of asylum seekers and refugees on the European Union. And they concluded that the additional spending would boost the EU’s GDP by 0.09 per cent in 2016, and by 0.13 per cent in 2017. In fact, the GDP is estimated to be 0.5 per cent higher in Austria in 2017, 0.4 per cent more in Sweden 0.3 per cent in Germany.
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