Effects of Immigrant Characteristics on Welfare Attitudes: Experimental Evidence

• In Event: Perceptions, Attitudes, and Public Opinion on Migration

Abstract

Existing research indicates that immigration can considerably impact native citizens’ welfare support in developed countries. However, few studies have thoroughly examined the effects of immigrants’ basic characteristics on American public opinion toward welfare policies. We suggest that both immigrants’ physiological features (e.g., gender and age) and their national background (e.g., the status of peace and economic development in the homeland) could impact Americans’ welfare attitudes, and such effects vary according to party identification. Through conducting a conjoint survey experiment, we find that not only does the vulnerability of immigrant women and children lead citizens to conceive that they are more deserving of welfare benefits than male and adult immigrants, but also immigrants from relatively low-income countries and countries under invasion are more likely to bolster citizens’ welfare support than newcomers from relatively high-income countries and peaceful countries. While favorable effects of immigrant women and children and immigrants fleeing from invaded countries are more prominent among Democrats, Republicans are more inclined than Democrats to support immigrants from high-income countries to be welfare beneficiaries. Moreover, findings of the conjoint study on the effects of war-torn backgrounds in immigrants’ home countries can be generalizable to both real and fictitious countries.

Authors

• Hang Qi, University of Macau

• Michelangelo Landgrave, University of Colorado