It's a horrible irony that a well-intentioned welfare system was a major factor leading to this economic repression. But if you have an expensive safety net for everyone in your country, then you can't afford mass immigration (because of rent seeking), so politics forces you to "regulate" it. Now your laws deny opportunities to would-be African and Arab immigrants; not merely welfare, but jobs, access to markets and capital. Not only is it not-egalitarian, it's outright regressive.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I was talking about the "how hard it is to immigrate part"; if you deny them entry, you are denying them access to your economy and its opportunities.
