The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Natives' and Immigrants' Attitudes Towards Immigration

Abstract

We investigate whether the dependence of immigrants on welfare benefits leads to opposition to further immigration by natives and immigrants in a pooled cross-section of 21 European countries for the 2004-2010 period. Explicitly controlling for the dependence of immigrants and natives on benefits we find that higher benefit take-up rates among immigrants than among natives lead to less favourable attitudes of natives towards immigration. Interestingly, we do not find similar stylised facts for immigrants' attitudes towards immigration.

Keywords: immigration, welfare state, migration attitudes

JEL Classification: F22, J15, H53, I38