Welfare state and natives’ preferences for immigrants’ types

When natives realize that their country’s welfare system includes immigrants, they may prefer high-income immigrants to low-income ones because the former will contribute more to the system because of its redistributive nature. We examine this causal effect using a novel survey experiment. In the experiment, we randomly assign half of the respondents to receive information designed to increase their perception that the national healthcare insurance system includes immigrants. Subsequently, we assess respondents’ preferences for different types of immigrants through a conjoint experiment. Our findings reveal that the treatment reduced preferences for low-income immigrants but increased preferences for high-income immigrants. Furthermore, these effects were observed only among those who did not perceive an increase in foreign workers as a threat to their job security. Thus, concerns about the welfare system and job insecurity should not be considered in isolation. Overall, the results indicate that institutional design (particularly the redistributive structure of welfare systems) shapes political preferences regarding immigration policy.