The Salience of Immigration and Its Effects on Welfare Priorities

• In Event: European Political Economy

Abstract

Despite vast amounts of research investigating how immigration affects support for the welfare state in Europe, findings remain inconclusive. Whereas some studies find a negative effect of immigration on support for the welfare state, many do not. However, it would be mistaken to draw from these findings that the increasing salience of immigration is inconsequential for European citizens’ welfare preferences. Based on recent arguments that immigration influences support for social policy differently depending on policy design, I contend that immigration being salient does not affect how much welfare state voters want but rather what kind of a welfare state. I argue that immigration being at the forefront of one’s thinking primarily affects which social policies are prioritized.
This paper presents findings from a unique survey experiment in three West European countries (Germany, Sweden, UK). Preliminary results show that priming respondents with immigration enhances their preference for consumption over social investment policies since only the former insure people against immediate economic insecurities caused by immigration. Moreover, anti-immigration voters move away from supporting policies, in which they perceive immigrants to be overrepresented among the recipients, when primed with immigration. Specifically, immigration increases support for old age pensions while undermining support for active labour market policies. These findings have important implications for welfare politics. While the fear of immigration undermining support for welfare spending seems exaggerated, heated debates about immigration can weaken support for the social investment paradigm at the expense of the traditional, consumptive welfare state.

Author

• Matthias Enggist, University of Zurich