The importance of discretion for welfare services to minorities: Examining workload and anti‐immigration attitudes

Abstract

Migration influx in Western countries resulting in increasingly diverse societies results in more complex situations for bureaucrats in their client interactions in welfare organizations. The role of discretion for services to clients has received much attention in the public administration research and therefore this study explores the relation among perceived workload, anti-immigration attitudes, perceived discretion, and perceived difficulty in working with migrants. The paper examines the function of perceived discretion as moderator or mediator variable in this constellation. The relations are examined by using structural equation modelling based on a survey among Swedish welfare bureaucrats (N = 1,319). The results show that heavier perceived workload increased the likelihood of experiencing work with migrants as difficult and that greater perceived discretion decreased the likelihood of experiencing work with migrants as difficult. The results suggest that perceived discretion functions as a mediator for the relation between perceived workload and difficulty in work with migrants: potentially functioning as a 'buffer' for organizational pressure. We also found that bureaucrats who hold negative attitudes towards migrants were more likely to express their work with migrants as more difficult. This paper contributes to the public administration literature by increasing our knowledge on how discretion 426

Listening to snitches: Race/ethnicity, English proficiency, and access to welfare fraud enforcement systems

“…Other researchers have observed ethnic biases with respect to local institutions in Brazil (Leivas & dos Santos, 2018), social welfare programs in Colombia (Slough, 2020), and the global allocation of internet access across racial groups (Weidmann et al, 2016). Evidence of bureaucratic discrimination has also been shown in developed countries like Germany (Hemker & Rink, 2017), Sweden (Schütze & Johansson, 2019), and the United Kingdom (Ford, 2016). Our results add to the growing body of literature indicating biases in the bureaucracies of diverse nations around the world.…”

Emotional creaming: Street‐level bureaucrats’ prioritisation of migrant clients ‘likely to succeed’ in labour market integration

“…The implications for (migrant) clients may not be any different than if decisions were made from bias. Nevertheless, our findings suggests that these mechanisms do not merely derive from caseworkers’ negative attitudes or implicit prejudice towards migrants, as suggested by Schütze and Johansson (2020). Rather, they mirror how institutional measurements and objectives construct the ‘ideal client’.…”

“…This may point to an affinity bias or affect heuristics in welfare bureaucracies, where street‐level workers favour and prioritise clients that resemble themselves, that they connect with and like (Moseley & Thomann, 2021). Emotions thus potentially undermine bureaucratic principles of equal treatment (Eggebø, 2013; Fineman, 1996) and are a source to arbitrariness in service provision, not the least regarding migrant clients (Schütze & Johansson, 2020). Thomann and Rapp (2018) found that Swiss welfare workers perceive migrant clients as less deserving than Swiss applicants.…”

“…Studies show that street-level bureaucrats tend to prioritise clients they get emotionally affected by (Moesby-Jensen & Nielsen, 2015), whom they deem particularly 'worthy' (Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2012) or with which they experience a personal connection (Belabas & Gerrits, 2017). In this perspective, emotions have also been connected to discriminatory treatment of migrant clients (Barrass & Shields, 2017;Schütze & Johansson, 2020).…”

Active representative bureaucracy, homogeneous organizational context, and deviation from official policy among street‐level bureaucrats

“…As a result of recent demographic and global changes, societies worldwide are becoming more diverse (Nadan & Ben-Ari, 2013). Schütze and Johansson (2019) claim that the influx of migrants in Western countries has resulted in increasingly diverse societies that create complex situations for bureaucrats interacting with clients in public organizations. Cultural heterogeneity requires formulation of action strategies for addressing minority groups, especially by those involved in social welfare and public service (Banks, 2004).…”