The Welfare State’s Ugly Nativist Logic: New at Reason

One big reason the West is experiencing a massive nativist spasm is its welfare state. Indeed, protecting social programs from foreign moochers has become the biggest rallying cry for restrictionists in Europe, America and even Canada – the paragon of human compassion. Whether immigrants really strain – rather than strengthen – the welfare state is debatable. But what is not debatable is that the welfare state has failed in its central project to create a new kind of person whose humane commitments are driven not by parochial attachments to self, family, and clan – but a more cosmopolitan sensibility. In fact, it may have deepened these attachments, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia.

View this article.