100 years of the Ministry of Social Affairs
For example, in the hotly debated issue of the "misuse" of social benefits, it is particularly im-portant to use empirical evidence to determine the actual extent of a problem. Otherwise, there is a danger of creating new social problems in the balancing act between hunting for social abuse and supporting disadvantaged population groups, in which people who find themselves in an acute emergency fall victim to cutbacks.
Badelt also drew attention to the fact that there are many social policy problems that can only be solved at an international level, particularly at EU level. These include, for example, the mi-gration of workers within the EU, which causes problems both in the host countries and in the countries of origin. The population will also generally not be able and willing to believe in the future of Europe if binding agreements are made only in fiscal policy, but social rights often do not go beyond well-meaning declarations.
From a technical point of view, the WIFO director mentioned the demographic, technological and environmental challenges for modern social policy, but also the danger of an increasing segmentation of society in which groups are formed that are marked by a "friend-foe attitude". This polarisation could turn out to be the first step towards even violent conflicts, as foreign ex-amples would unfortunately show.
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