Public opinion, prejudice and the racialization of welfare in Canada

Drawing on a unique survey experiment in the 2011 Canadian Election Study data set, this paper examines the ways in which racial cues influence attitudes towards redistributive policy. While work in the USA points to a strong racialization of welfare attitudes, little research explores the ways in which racial cues may structure attitudes about welfare elsewhere. In the Canadian context, Aboriginal peoples have faced both historic persecution and continue to face severe discrimination. They also experience much higher levels of poverty than other groups in Canada. Our results examine the effect that (hypothetical) Aboriginal recipients have on public support for social assistance. Results suggest that respondents' support for redistribution is lower when recipients are Aboriginal rather than white. As we have seen in the USA, then, support for welfare is related to racialized perceptions about those who benefit from social assistance.