Lifestyle Poverty and a Caring State? Causal Attributions of Economic Success and Support for Redistribution Among First-Generation Migrants

Research on welfare state attitudes consistently shows that how individuals explain economic mobility, poverty, and wealth—whether through individual or structural causes—shapes their support for redistribution. Those who attribute poverty to personal failure tend to oppose redistribution, whereas those who see structural causes are more supportive. Similarly, those who think everyone can get ahead through their own efforts are more likely to oppose redistribution. While these relationships are well established for the general population, migrants have rarely been the focus of such analyses. At the same time, migration research offers a puzzling picture: some studies report strong redistributive preferences among migrants, while others indicate a pronounced belief in meritocratic explanations of social outcomes. This paper bridges these literatures by investigating how first-generation migrants in Germany connect their beliefs about the causes of economic success with their redistributive attitudes. Drawing on quantitative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the study finds that migrants frequently combine seemingly contradictory beliefs. Unlike non-migrant populations, the connection between causal attributions and redistributive preferences is less straightforward. Qualitative interviews and group discussions help to clarify this pattern: participants tend to interpret redistribution as a precondition for meritocracy, creating a system in which individuals can succeed based on effort. These findings have important implications for the study of public perceptions and legitimacy of the welfare state. Understanding how migrants perceive redistribution as enabling individual success provides insight into the subjective foundations of support for the welfare state and highlights the need to consider migration-specific experiences when analyzing attitudes toward redistribution.