General Versus Program-Specific Welfare Chauvinism. The Case of Attitudes to Eastern European Workers’ Access to Benefits and Services in Denmark

Posted: 20 Jun 2016

See all articles by Christian Larsen

Christian Larsen

Aalborg University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: June 20, 2016

Abstract

The article investigates how welfare chauvinism differs across various social benefits and services. The case is Danes’ attitudes towards granting social rights to Eastern European workers. For some programs a clear majority favours giving social rights immediately on arrival, e.g. rights to health care, whereas permanent exclusion is favoured for other programs, e.g. child allowances given to children in country of origin. These findings support the thesis of program-specific welfare chauvinism and point to a political space for pragmatic adjustments of current EU rules. The article also finds similarity across programs. The Danish welfare chauvinist attitudes are in general fuelled by lack of shared identity with migrants and sociotropic concerns about the economic burden of migration. The article finds little evidence of narrow self-interest effects; with a notable exception of disability pensioners having stronger welfare chauvinist attitudes than other groups.

Keywords: welfare chauvinsim, Denmark, EU-enlargement, sociotropic, welfare attitudes

JEL Classification: I3

Suggested Citation

Larsen, Christian, General Versus Program-Specific Welfare Chauvinism. The Case of Attitudes to Eastern European Workers’ Access to Benefits and Services in Denmark (June 20, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2798135

Christian Larsen (Contact Author)

Aalborg University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Fredrik Bajers Vej 7E
Aalborg, DK-9220
Denmark

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