DIVERSITY OR THREAT? IMMIGRATION AND AMERICANS' SUPPORT FOR THE WELFARE STATE.

Scholars have long found that public support for social welfare is influenced by the prevalence of racial minority groups, especially African Americans. Our recent study, however, shows that today's American welfare state is becoming "immigrationalized": immigration has had an important impact on public welfare support (Garand et al., 2015). In this paper, the mechanisms through which immigration has influenced public welfare support in the US are examined. Whether or not Americans' support for welfare spending is influenced by racial and ethnic heterogeneity induced by immigrants or immigrants' heavy reliance on welfare is examined. Furthermore, the possibility that immigration attitudes could condition both processes is assessed. In order to test these mechanisms, macro-level contextual data on the actual population size and welfare consumption rates of immigrants are merged with micro-level public opinion data from the Cumulative American National Election Survey (CANES) for an extended time period from 1996 to 2012. Multilevel models suggest that immigration attitudes and the degree of immigrant welfare participation in one's home state combine to influence one's welfare attitudes. Individuals who reside in states with greater immigrant welfare participation rates and at the same time hold negative attitudes toward immigrants will decrease their welfare support the most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]