98 Chapter 5 2021). Similarly, the welfare chauvinism theory posits that if an individual considers migrants as ‘undeserving’ of welfare support they may wish to ring-fence benefits for natives (van Oorschot, 2000), while keeping benefits generous for the in-group at the exclusion of the out-group (Cappelen & Peters, 2017). Alternatively, other authors have found support for social protection may actually be bolstered due to a desire for increased compensation for the economic threat that migrants pose to a native individual’s feeling of job or income security (Fenwick, 2019; Römer, 2023; Walter, 2010; 2017). In the following section, we discuss these micro-mechanisms alongside complementary social psychology theories such as in-group/out-group and contact theory in order to develop our hypotheses. 5.2.1 Societal solidarity and redistributive preferences The anti-solidarity hypothesis contends that the causal link between immigration and redistributive preferences is grounded in the concept of solidarity. Traditionally, welfare states have been developed over time and built on a foundation of solidarity between citizens who formulate boundaries around shared social identities such as race, ethnicity, or language. As a result, increasing ethnic heterogeneity, which changes this balance, can erode this foundation of solidarity and consequently citizens’ support for the welfare state (Burgoon & Rooduijn, 2021; Alesina & Glaeser, 2004; Alesina et al., 2001). In the US context, Alesina and Glaeser convincingly argue that ethnic diversity and lower solidarity relative to Europe is a crucial factor for explaining why the US does not have a welfare state similar to those found in Europe. However, whether or not this means that an increase in a particular sub-set of the population or a reduction in the homogeneity of society leads to an erosion in support for the welfare state is not yet clear. In Europe, Mau and Burkhardt (2009) examine the anti-solidarity hypothesis and the role of ethnic diversity in determining support for the welfare state and find that increasing ethnic diversity may have a weak, negative association with support for the welfare state but certain contextual controls such as welfare regime, GDP, and unemployment are more important. Similarly, after using three different measurements for immigration and testing a number of different welfare attitudes from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), Brady and Finnigan (2014) do not find any robust evidence to support the anti-solidarity hypothesis. Rather, they conclude that net migration and changes in the percentage of foreign-born have positive effects on welfare attitudes and that the compensation and welfare chauvinism hypotheses provide greater explanatory potential and should be explored further. The welfare chauvinism hypothesis is another causal micro-mechanism which argues that solidarity between citizens is important for shaping the boundaries of the welfare state. However, instead of citizens calling for full-scale retrenchment of the welfare state as a result of rising immigration,
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