Welfare Chauvinism? Refugee Flows and Electoral Support for Populist-right Parties in Industrial Democracies

Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya and Kelly, Grace (2017): Welfare Chauvinism? Refugee Flows and Electoral Support for Populist-right Parties in Industrial Democracies.

Abstract

In this paper we examine whether refugee flows are associated with an increase in electoral support for populist-right parties. The empirical evidence on this so far remains mixed. We argue that refugee inflows alone are an inaccurate predictor of the success of populist-right parties. Rather, refugee inflows can lead to a rise in electoral support for populist-right parties where traditional welfare states are expansive —the so called ‘welfare chauvinism’ argument, wherein natives already dependent on high levels of social welfare are likely to see refugees as interlopers who free-ride on welfare and thereby threaten the welfare of locals. Using panel data on 27 OECD countries during 1990–2014 period (25 years), we find no evidence to suggest that refugee inflows per se increase electoral support for populist-right parties. However, a positive effect of refugee inflows on electoral support for populist-right parties is conditional upon a higher degree of social welfare and unemployment benefit spending, which supports the propositions of 'welfare chauvinism.' Moreover, support for populist-right parties increase when the degree of labor market regulations and welfare spending is high. Our results are robust to alternative data, sample and estimation techniques.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Refugee flows, welfare state, and populist-right.
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F22 - International Migration; H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue > H24 - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H41 - Public Goods

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