Welfare State Deservingness of Immigrants in Germany: Examining Deservingness Rankings and the Role of Identity

Abstract

In the 'deservingness literature', it is argued that people use five criteria to discern whether an individual deserves to receive social welfare: control, need, identity, attitude, and reciprocity. Regarding welfare support, the public usually views immigrants as the least deserving group compared to the sick, the elderly, and the unemployed. There has been an ongoing debate about the role that the 'identity' criterion plays for immigrants' position. Using a vignette design, this paper proposes the existence of at least three types of deservingness rankings regarding immigrants in Germany - a core nationalistic deservingness ranking, a European Union deservingness ranking, and a differentiating deservingness ranking. At the same time, it identifies a universalistic counter-discourse. The results indicate that identity often plays a role either within a pure identity discourse or a combined discourse; only an anti-identity discourse seems to negate the role of identity.