Support for Redistribution and Immigration in Advanced Industrialised Societies

While low-skilled non-Western migrants had worse socioeconomic outcomes than low-skilled natives in all advanced industrialized countries, there were large cross-national differences. The pattern, however, is counter-intuitive. Poverty rates for migrants were higher in the Continental European and Nordic countries than in the Anglophone countries, although the former are generally more egalitarian. This cross-national variation cannot be fully explained by micro factors, such as age, gender or education. There is a paucity of research in Political Economy on the political causes of migrant-native inequalities. This paper develops a theoretical argument that links micro-level immigration and redistribution preferences to these patterns of inequality on the macro-level. It argues that inequalities between low-skilled natives and migrants are greater when low-skilled natives succeed in forging coalitions with high-skilled natives. This depends on the electoral and party system, and it is mediated through unions. These claims are explored through a time-series cross-sectional analysis of 20 advanced industrialized countries over the period 1994 to 2012. By comparing outcomes of migrants and natives within and between countries, this paper offers a new perspective on the politics of inequality.