The Changing Role of Race in Social Welfare Attitude Formation

• Published date: 01 September 2013
• Author: Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz,Laura S. Hussey
• Date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912912453506
• Subject Matter: Articles

453506PRQXXX10.1177/1065912912453506Politi
cal Research Quarterly XX(X)Hussey and Pearson-Merkowitz
Regular Article
Political Research Quarterly
66(3) 572 –584
The Changing Role of Race in Social
© 2011 University of Utah
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Welfare Attitude Formation: Partisan
DOI: 10.1177/1065912912453506
prq.sagepub.com
Divides over Undocumented Immigrants
and Social Welfare Policy
Laura S. Hussey1 and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz2
Abstract
Growth in the U.S. Latino population has prompted speculation that the “racialization” of welfare with respect to
African Americans would eventually extend to Latinos. The authors assess this prediction, analyzing public attitudes
toward welfare spending and national health insurance and their linkages to attitudes about Latinos and undocumented
immigrants. The authors find significant relationships between affect for “illegal immigrants” and social welfare attitudes,
conditional on party identification. The findings indicate that Americans view undocumented immigrants as the
beneficiaries of social welfare policies, not the wider Latino population. Furthermore, the framing of social service
utilization by undocumented immigrants could threaten the Democratic coalition.
Keywords
Hispanic, Latino, illegal immigrants, welfare, public opinion
It is now well established that white Americans’ attitudes
with views of Latinos and/or undocumented immigrants.
about welfare are entangled with their negative stereo-
We test that expectation in this article.
types of blacks (e.g., Kinder and Sanders 1996; Peffley,
A finding that Americans’ social welfare policy prefer-
Hurwitz, and Sniderman 1997; Gilens 1999; Soss, Ford-
ences are linked to their views about Latinos and undocu-
ing, and Schram 2011). A prominent explanation for this
mented immigrants may have implications for partisan
phenomenon cites the social welfare information envi-
social welfare politics. Research by Carmines and Layman
ronment: political and media elites often portray welfare
(1998) suggests that antiblack prejudice potentially frac-
recipients as black, and such discourse explicitly or
tures Democrats on social welfare to a much greater extent
implicitly invokes the stereotype that blacks are lazy and
than it does Republicans (also see Sniderman and
undeserving (Gilens 1999).
Carmines 1999). We argue that this logic extends to atti-
Since the early 1990s, debates over social services
tudes about Latinos and immigrants, especially since the
have implicated a new group, Latino immigrants, as abus-
immigration issue cuts across existing partisan divides
ers of public services such as cash and nutrition assistance,
(Tichenor 2002). Among Republicans, most of whom we
publicly funded health care, and education.1 Concern over
expect to be unenthusiastic about the welfare state, politi-
immigrant use of welfare benefits led to the passage of the
cal discourse that links Latinos or undocumented immi-
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility
grants to debates about welfare should merely reinforce
Act of 1996 and to several state voter initiatives designed
opposition to welfare for citizens that resent these groups.
to restrict immigrant access to social services. More
In contrast, activation of negative attitudes about Latinos
recently, much of the 2009–2010 debate over President
Barack Obama’s health care reform proposal swirled
1University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
around whether undocumented immigrants would be cov-
2University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
ered. If Americans increasingly perceive Latino immi-
grants, particularly those in the country illegally, as major
Corresponding Author:
Laura S. Hussey, Department of Political Science, University of Maryland,
beneficiaries of social welfare programs, then contempo-
Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
rary public opinion about social welfare should also vary
Email: lhussey@umbc.edu

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Hussey and Pearson-Merkowitz
573
or immigrants may challenge the prowelfare predisposi-
irresponsible has emerged as a particularly powerful pre-
tions we expect to find among most Democrats. In short,
dictor (e.g., Soss, Fording, and Schram 2011; Gilens
while a Republican is unlikely to support welfare regard-
1999; Sniderman and Piazza 1993).
less of the target group, a Democrat may support benefits
While work-ethic stereotypes about whites, Latinos,
for “deserving” in-groups but not for “undeserving” out-
and Asians were not associated with welfare attitudes in
groups (e.g., Schneider and Ingram 1993). For this reason,
Gilens’s work, consistent with the theory that blacks
in addition to asking whether the public’s social welfare
come to mind when the public thinks about welfare
attitudes are associated with evaluations of Latinos and
recipients, Gilens (1999, 71) and others (Fox 2004;
undocumented immigrants, we consider whether evalua-
Soss et al. 2003) predicted that welfare might soon also
tions of these target groups play a more prominent role in
become identified with Latinos. The 2000 census
Democrats’ social welfare attitudes than they do in
revealed that Hispanics had become the fastest growing
Republicans’ attitudes.
minority group in the country. They will also soon sup-
Specifically, we assess the predictive power of affect for
plant blacks as the largest minority, rising to a projected
“illegal immigrants” and “Hispanics” for Democrats’ and
24 percent of the population by 2050.2 At the same
Republicans’ preferences on federal welfare program
time, the proportion of means-tested cash “welfare”
spending and national health insurance, using the 2004 and
recipients of Hispanic origin has also been increasing
2008 American National Election Studies (ANES). We
(Soss et al. 2003).
find evidence among Democrats in the mass public that
We have little direct evidence that the public thinks
support for welfare program spending and national health
about immigrants or Latinos generally when it thinks
insurance diminishes as attitudes toward “illegal immi-
about social welfare program users. Multiple polls, how-
grants” grow increasingly negative. The estimated impact
ever, reveal perceptions that illegal immigrants strain
of these evaluations also rivals or surpasses those of ideol-
welfare programs, emergency rooms, and public budgets;
ogy and political principles. Variation in Republicans’
that illegal immigrants are likely to use such services; and
social policy attitudes is more clearly driven by ideology
that the American safety net attracts illegal immigrants
and political principles and is not associated with affect for
(Lapinski et al. 1997; see Kuhn 2010 for recent poll high-
undocumented immigrants per se. Meanwhile, we find no
lights). Hainmueller and Hiscox (2010) present evidence
evidence in either party that anti-Hispanic affect is associ-
of natives’ concern that low-skilled immigrants compete
ated with reduced social welfare support, suggesting that
with them for public benefits, while accounts of the mid-
the public does appear to distinguish between Latinos writ
1990s welfare reform often cite anti-immigrant sentiment
large and “illegal immigrants.”
(Reese 2007) and claims about the fiscal burdens posed
by immigrants (Huber and Espenshade 1997) as contrib-
Racialization and Social Welfare
uting factors.
Published empirical work on the linkage between atti-
While the proportion of Americans professing openly rac-
tudes about Latinos and immigrants and attitudes about
ist attitudes has dwindled, subtler racial stereotypes per-
social programs has been fairly scarce. According to Soss
sist (Schuman et al. 1997) and are linked to views on
and colleagues (2003), negative attitudes toward Latinos
policies explicitly or implicitly associated with minorities.
predicted public support for two welfare reforms—family
Research exploring these linkages has largely focused on
caps and time limits—in 1996. Fox (2004) finds that per-
attitudes toward blacks as predictors of whites’ opinion on
ceptions of Latinos as lazy are unimportant to welfare
welfare, affirmative action, crime, and busing policies
spending opinion as long as perceptions about blacks are
(Dyck and Hussey 2008; Avery and Peffley 2003; Gilens
controlled. But considering context changes this relation-
1999; Nelson 1999; Peffley, Hurwitz, and Sniderman
ship: in states with low proportions of Latinos, opposition
1997; Sniderman and Piazza 1993; McConahay 1982;
to welfare spending flows from perceptions of Latinos as
also see Winter 2006 on the racialization of social security
lazy; in states with high proportions of Latinos, opposi-
as a “white” program).
tion to welfare spending flows from perceptions of
According to these studies, policy issues become
Latinos as hardworking. Thus, whether public attitudes
“racialized” when the discourse around a policy area
about Latinos and social welfare programs are linked is
evolves in such a way that attitudes toward the issue
still an open question.
become inseparable from attitudes about racial minori-
Stereotypes of Latinos arguably differ from those of
ties. This is brought about by media coverage and elite
African Americans, an important point for our ability to rec-
debate that implies (often inaccurately) the racial and
ognize if a policy has been “racialized” in terms of...