How does migration affect the European economy? Until recently there was a general consensus among scholars that the influx of foreign labor contributes to the improvement of basic macroeconomic indicators, i.e. it promotes economic growth, increases tax revenues and reduces the burden on the pension system. However, as a result of the ongoing refugee, unprecedented both in scale and structure of the migration flow, European governments faced a number of economic problems, including the increased burden on budgets, negative effects for some industries and the rise of the shadow sector. The economically justified response to these challenges is the accelerated integration of refugees into the European labor market, but these measures involve an even greater increase in government spending and cause fierce criticism from a large part of the native-born population, as well as opposition parties.