Immigration and Support for Redistribution: Lessons from Europe

Abstract

Research shows that opposition to policies that redistribute across racial divides has affected the development of the American welfare state. Are similar dynamics at play in Western Europe? For many scholars, the answer is yes. In contrast, we argue that researchers' understanding of the political economy of redistribution in diversifying European countries is too incomplete to reach a conclusion on this issue. First, existing evidence is inconsistent with the assumption—ubiquitous in this line of research—of a universal distaste for sharing resources with people who are culturally, ethnically, and racially different. Second, important historical and institutional differences between the United States and Europe preclude any straightforward transposition of the American experience to the European case. We discuss what we see as the most promising lines of inquiry going forward.

JEL codes

D64: Altruism • Philanthropy
H23: Externalities • Redistributive Effects • Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
J15: Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants • Non-labor Discrimination
J68: Public Policy
K37: Immigration Law
Z13: Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology • Social and Economic Stratification