Immigrants’ Support for Welfare Spending and the Role of Perceived and Preferred Group’s Access to Welfare: A Comparative Study Among 10 Immigrant Groups in the Netherlands

Abstract

Immigrants’ opinions on welfare spending are often ignored, but an examination of these perspectives provides further insights into the formation of welfare attitudes. We developed a framework proposing that support for welfare spending is not only driven by self-interest and group-interest, but also by the preferences and perceptions of immigrants regarding their group’s access to welfare. We discuss how these two aspects affect immigrants’ support for spending on unemployment benefits and social assistance in the Netherlands. Immigrants were found to be more supportive of spending on welfare to which they perceived they had greater access, particularly when they preferred a more generous access for their group. Their support for welfare spending was weaker if they preferred less generous access.