The inevitable deservingness gap: A study into the insurmountable immigrant penalty in perceived welfare deservingness

Abstract

As the asylum crisis hit Europe in tandem with the Great Recession, concerns about declining support for equal welfare provision to immigrants grow. Although studies on welfare deservingness show that immigrants are deemed least entitled to welfare compared to other target groups, they have fallen short of isolating welfare claimants' identity (i.e. foreign origin) with competing deservingness criteria that might explain the immigrant deservingness gap. This article studies the importance of welfare claimants' foreign origins relative to other theoretically relevant deservingness criteria via a unique vignette experiment among 23,000 Dutch respondents about their preferred levels of unemployment benefits. We show that foreign origin is among the three most important conditions for reduced solidarity, after labour market reintegration behaviour (reciprocity) and culpability for unemployment (control). Furthermore, favourable criteria do not close the gap between immigrants and natives in perceived deservingness, emphasizing the difficulty of overcoming the immigrant penalty in perceived welfare deservingness. We conclude our findings in the light of ongoing theoretical and political debates.

Percepción de los derechos de salud para la población migrante en Chile: análisis desde Twitter

“…Un elemento que ha generado interés en el último periodo es el mérito (deservingness), condición necesaria para acceder, por ejemplo, a bienes públicos como la seguridad social 23 , 24 , 25 . Algunos de los criterios necesarios para alcanzar este mérito se relacionan con la necesidad, la identidad (ser considerado «uno de nosotros»), el control (la responsabilidad individual de determinada condición), la reciprocidad (cuánto se ha ganado el apoyo) y la actitud (gratitud por el apoyo brindado) 26 . Estos elementos interactúan además con la trayectoria migratoria de cada país, así como también con los antecedentes políticos e históricos que van determinando la presencia de diversos estigmas hacia ese grupo 27 .…”

“…Estos elementos interactúan además con la trayectoria migratoria de cada país, así como también con los antecedentes políticos e históricos que van determinando la presencia de diversos estigmas hacia ese grupo 27 . En esta lógica, las personas inmigrantes muchas veces no son percibidas como cumplidoras de dichos criterios 21 , 26 , por ser consideradas como responsables de su situación (han elegido emigrar), no ser «uno de nosotros» o percibir que tensionan la distribución de recursos.…”

Street-Level Judgements about Welfare Deservingness: How Jobcentre Advisors Decide about the Individual Mix of ‘Support’ and ‘Demand’ in the Delivery of Activation Policies

“…Within the group of the unemployed, both individual characteristics and the behaviour of the unemployed have an influence on whether the public judges them as deserving of public welfare and to what extent (e.g. Reeskens and van der Meer, 2019).…”

Migration and Healthcare Reforms in Spain: Symbolic Politics, Converging Outputs, Oppositions from the Field

“…In a context of economic crisis and austerity policies, the PP raised the reform's profile and claimed credit for it, believing that framing healthcare as a right linked to national membership and contribution to the social security system while scapegoating 'illegal and foreign abusers' would secure it support from conservative and antiimmigration voters. Accordingly, retrenchment discourse and policies publicly and openly targeted MIS, a prototype of 'welfare undeservingness' (Willen 2012;Perna 2019;Reeskens & van der Meer 2019), particularly at times of economic and migration crises. In doing so, it targeted a politically weak group, as MIS are excluded from any political rights, lacking any power to impose sanctions on the government.…”