Welfare threat
and exclusionism of immigrants

Perception of immigrants in different European welfare states

Radka Klvaňová

MASTER THESIS

I  M  P  A  L  L  A
The International Master in Social Policy Analysis
by Luxembourg, Leuven and Associate Institutes

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

academic year 2004-2005

Supervisor: Prof. M. Swyngedouw
Rapporteur: Dr. P. HAUSMAN

Acknowledgements

1. Immigration, welfare state and xenophobia

    1.1 Welfare state types

    1.2 Theories of ethnic relations

    1.3 Welfare state and attitudes towards immigrants: hypotheses and expectations

    1.4 Overview of existing research

2. Research design and measurement instruments

    2.1 Data collection

    2.2 Sampling strategy and weighting

    2.3 Non-response and missing values treatment

    2.4 Measurement instruments, variables and the method of analysis

    2.5 Comparability

3. Results

    3.1 Perceived threat to welfare and the exclusionism of immigrants in different welfare regimes

    3.2 Individual socio-economic characteristics, perceived welfare threat and the exclusionism of immigrants

4. Discussion and conclusion

Annexes

    A1. Annex 1: Tables

    A2. Annex 2: Items measuring the key concepts (ESS 2002/2003 questionnaire)

    A3. Annex 3: Definition of immigrants´ generations and the native population in the sample

References

Executive summary

Following the welfare regime typology of Esping-Andersen (1990), this study finds whether living in a particular welfare state affects the perception of immigrants as a source of threat to the welfare of the native population. Using the data from the European Social Survey 2002/2003, I answer two research questions: (1) how does the perceived welfare threat determine the exclusionism of immigrants by the native population in different European welfare states, and (2) how do the individual socioeconomic characteristics vary in their effect on the exclusionism of immigrants, and how do they interact with the perceived welfare threat in different European welfare states. The main finding of the study is that the perception of immigrants as a source of threat to the welfare among the native population differs across countries, but no clear relationship between the type of welfare regime and the effect of the perceived welfare threat on the exclusionism of immigrants exists, nor is there any welfare regime based pattern of the effect of the individual socioeconomic characteristic on the exclusionism of immigrants.