Some for all or all for some? Disentangling the mechanisms underlying socio-economic differences in welfare chauvinism in Britain and the Netherlands

Previous research has well-established the relation between natives’ socio-economic position and welfare chauvinism. Yet, the underlying mechanisms have never been examined. In this study we examine the mechanisms that underlie this relation in Britain and the Netherlands. These complex mechanisms have never been examined in previous research. We posit that natives with a vulnerable socio-economic position are more chauvinistic because they experience more economic strain, which makes them more opposed to decreasing inequalities between ethnic groups and more prone to perceive ethnic threat. In turn, opposition to decreasing ethnic inequalities and perceptions of ethnic threat are hypothesized to be positively related to welfare chauvinism. We use data from the first and second wave of The Welfare State Under Strain data, which fielded in Britain and the Netherlands in 2014 and 2015. We used an innovate new measure of welfare chauvinism, that captures how long migrants have to work and pay taxes before they are entitled to welfare benefits. We find that in both countries lower income, welfare dependency, and lower education are related to stronger feelings of economic strain. In turn, these feelings affect, either directly or indirectly, natives’ support for welfare chauvinism. In both countries feelings of strain fuel perceptions of ethnic threat, and in the Netherlands strain is also related to opposing lower levels of inequality between ethnic groups.