Using data covering 1980 to 2005 across 17 high income countries, this book offers a thorough and systematic analysis of the relevance of population heterogeneity in determining variations in welfare state policies as well as inequality and poverty. Comparative analysis provides a new look into the ongoing drive for welfare state retrenchment amidst increasing heterogeneity across many countries and its impacts on inequality and poverty, and how population heterogeneity with regard to race and ethnicity, religion, and immigration is linked with causes and consequences of the welfare state. This book presents integrative analysis of how heterogeneity may feed into inequality and poverty directly, through low socioeconomic status of minorities, and indirectly, through impacts on the broader sociopolitical attitudes and politics, policy provisions, and practices of the welfare state. These direct and indirect roles will be examined in a comprehensive framework by incorporating both cross-national and temporal variations. Findings point to the central roles of immigration in determining welfare state policies and their impacts on inequality and poverty. Although other forms of heterogeneity are not as strongly related, their close affinity with immigration in these immigrant-receiving countries helps to put findings into a broader context. The presentation of descriptive data drawn from a number of fragmented sources will provide an important insight into the variations and their potential causes. This book will discuss the relevant concepts and contexts by drawing from the existing research base and from simple to more sophisticated analyses. Students, researchers, policymakers, and other readers interested in comparative welfare state will benefit from an integrative analysis presented in this reference book.

Zusammenfassung

This book situates ethnic heterogeneity in the larger discussion of the welfare state and its redistributive outcomes, poverty and inequality. By using comprehensive, longitudinal data covering 1980 to 2010 from 17 high income countries, this analysis helps achieve a major milestone in comparative welfare state research both conceptually and methodologically. Conceptually, it elevates the relevance of growing ethnic heterogeneity in thinking about how politics and economics of the welfare state operate, collectively impacting the magnitudes of poverty and inequality. Methodologically, the analysis conducted in this book provides broader empirical tests for the many propositions and discourses found in the literature based largely on anecdotal evidence, case studies, and unjustifiably limited quantitative data. The innovative oeprationalization of the multidimensional character of both welfare state policies and ethnic heterogeneity help broaden the analytical frameworks of comparative welfare state research.

The outcome is a major advance in the way we understand the causes and redistributive consequences of the welfare state, in which ethno-racial, religious, and especially immigration heterogeneity can play a crucial role. A thorough and insightful analysis presented in this book helps students, researchers, and policymakers better understand the ethnic heterogeneity connections of the welfare state and redistribution, together with a comparative perspective of the changing faces of ethnic heterogeneity, welfare state policies, and poverty and inequality in high income countries.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Ethnic Heterogeneity.- The Welfare State.- Poverty and Inequality.- Ethnic Heterogeneity and the Welfare State.- Ethnic Heterogeneity and Poverty and Inequality.- Conclusion.- References.- Index.