The politics and policies of welfare chauvinism under the economic crisis

The ongoing economic crisis that emerged in the wake of the global recession
in 2008, and was followed by the more recent crisis of the Eurozone,
has introduced new themes and remoulded old ways of approaching the
welfare state, immigration, national belonging and racism in Northern
Europe. This article identifies two main ways of understanding welfare
chauvinism: 1) as a broad concept that covers all sorts of claims and policies
to reserve welfare benefits for the ‘native’ population; 2) an ethnonationalist
and racialising political agenda, characteristic especially of
right-wing populist parties. Focusing on the relationship between politics
and policies, we examine how welfare chauvinist political agendas
are turned into policies and what hinders welfare chauvinist claims from
becoming policy matters and welfare practices. It is argued that welfare chauvinism targeting migrants is part of a broader neoliberal restructuring
of the welfare state and of welfare retrenchment.