Immigration and support for the welfare state. An analysis of French public opinion

For fifteen years, many studies have pointed out that low levels of solidarity with immigrants lead to a fall in support for the welfare state. Therefore, more widespread immigration could cause a deep change in industrialized countries' social protection systems. This article challenges this analysis. Using a multilevel analysis based on French individual data, it shows that, first, hostility towards immigrants is not statistically related to support for the welfare state. Second, specific types of hostile beliefs are associated with this support, but not ever negatively, since some anti-immigration beliefs increase support for social protection. Third, the forms of beliefs about immigrants associated to lower support for social protection are more widespread within the electorate close to the UMP, while beliefs favoring social protection are poorly exploited politically and tend to be developed by economically vulnerable people.