‘Immigrationization’ of welfare politics? Anti-immigration and welfare attitudes in context

Figures & data

Figure 1. Hypothesised relationship between Anti-immigration attitudes and Support for welfare redistribution.

Figure 2. Country means of Support for redistribution (binary) and Anti-immigration (scale).

Figure 3. Country means of Foreign-born percent, Social welfare expenditure, and Migrant social-benefit dependency.

Table 1. Summary statistics.

Variable	Obs.	Mean	Std. dev.	Min	Max
Support for redistribution (binary)	260,856	0.71	0.45	0	1
Support for redistribution (categorical)	260,856	3.83	1.04	1	5
Anti-immigration (scale)	245,029	4.85	2.08	0	10
Foreign born	266,199	10.68	5.73	2	44
Social welfare spending	266,205	23.06	4.23	13	32
Migrant soc. benef. dependency	250,318	1.75	1.50	−2	7
Education: no second	264,293	0.14	0.34	0	1
Education: lower second	264,293	0.19	0.40	0	1
Education: upper second	264,293	0.38	0.49	0	1
Education: post-second	264,293	0.04	0.19	0	1
Education: tertiary	264,293	0.25	0.43	0	1
Income (subjective)	260,238	3.02	0.85	1	4
Unemployed	265,199	0.05	0.21	0	1
Age	256,326	48.84	17.88	18	123
Female	265,888	0.53	0.50	0	1
Foreign-born respondent	265,860	0.09	0.28	0	1
Religiosity	264,997	2.56	1.54	1	7
Partner	264,722	0.60	0.49	0	1
Children	265,426	0.38	0.48	0	1

Table 2. Anti-immigration attitudes and support for redistribution.

	M1	M2	M3	M4
Anti-immigration (scale)	−0.009*** (0.003)	0.018** (0.006)	0.160*** (0.014)	0.009* (0.004)
Anti-immig X foreign born		−0.002*** (0.000)
Anti-immig X social welfare spending			−0.007*** (0.001)
Anti-immig X migrant soc. ben. dep.				−0.010*** (0.002)
Foreign born	−0.004 (0.009)	0.007 (0.009)	−0.003 (0.009)	−0.004 (0.009)
Social welfare spending	−0.005 (0.013)	−0.005 (0.013)	0.029* (0.013)	−0.005 (0.013)
Migrant soc. benef. dependency	−0.060 (0.037)	−0.059 (0.037)	−0.059 (0.037)	−0.010 (0.038)
Education (base = no second)
Lower second	0.035 (0.022)	0.036 (0.022)	0.032 (0.022)	0.038+ (0.022)
Upper second	−0.058** (0.021)	−0.057** (0.021)	−0.060** (0.021)	−0.055** (0.021)
Post-second	−0.193*** (0.031)	−0.192*** (0.031)	−0.199*** (0.032)	−0.192*** (0.031)
Tertiary	−0.473*** (0.021)	−0.473*** (0.021)	−0.481*** (0.021)	−0.472*** (0.021)
Income (subjective)	−0.354*** (0.007)	−0.354*** (0.007)	−0.354*** (0.007)	−0.354*** (0.007)
Unemployed	0.155*** (0.026)	0.156*** (0.026)	0.156*** (0.026)	0.156*** (0.026)
Age	0.009*** (0.000)	0.009*** (0.000)	0.009*** (0.000)	0.009*** (0.000)
Female	0.270*** (0.010)	0.271*** (0.010)	0.269*** (0.010)	0.270*** (0.010)
Foreign-born respondent	−0.028 (0.018)	−0.032+ (0.018)	−0.025 (0.018)	−0.028 (0.018)
Religiosity	−0.011** (0.004)	−0.011** (0.004)	−0.012** (0.004)	−0.011** (0.004)
Partner	0.018 (0.012)	0.018 (0.012)	0.019 (0.012)	0.018 (0.012)
Children	−0.054*** (0.012)	−0.054*** (0.012)	−0.055*** (0.012)	−0.054*** (0.012)
Constant	2.031*** (0.308)	1.897*** (0.309)	1.220*** (0.316)	1.931*** (0.308)
Observations	212,572	212,572	212,572	212,572
Number of country-years	128	128	128	128
Log-likelihood	−117556	−117543	−117481	−117538
Chi-2	6788	6812	6921	6820

DV:1 = Support for redistribution; 0 = Do not support redistribution. All models are random-intercept logit models (individuals within country-years), standard errors (in parentheses).

***p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, + p < 0.10.

Figure 4. Predicted Support for redistribution as a function of Anti-immigration (scale).

Figure 5. Predicted marginal effects of Anti-immigration (scale) on Support for redistribution, across levels of Foreign-born percent, Social-welfare expenditure and Migrant social-benefit dependency.

Figure 6. Predicted Support for redistribution, across levels of Anti-immigration (scale), at low versus high levels of Foreign-born percent, Social-welfare expenditure and Migrant social-benefit dependency.