Welfare Chauvinism Among the General Population of the Euro Area in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

The continuity of the European Union lies in its ability to maintain a robust system of welfare protection and appropriate levels of social cohesion for increasingly diverse and segmented societies. However, the Great Recession of the late 2000s challenged the European social model's advancement and questioned the grounds of European multiculturalism. This thesis aimed to investigate whether contextual socioeconomic characteristics -particularly rising unemployment, inequality, and poverty/social exclusion- increased public support for the exclusion of immigrants from the rights to social benefits and services (welfare chauvinism). A secondary analysis was conducted - from data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey (2016) - to assess the specifics of the Euro area, where the struggles of the post-recession period were particularly severe.  By using multilevel modeling (specifically, a three-level structure of individuals nested within regions nested within countries), this dissertation developed an original approach that reinforced some of the conclusions presented in previous investigations. In particular, this study confirmed that increasing regional-unemployment and growing country-inequality were significantly associated with exclusionist attitudes among the Eurozone's citizenry. Such a finding was consistent with previous literature suggesting that anxiety over scarcity compromises out-group solidarity.  However, it was found that an increment of the population at risk of poverty/social exclusion over the recession recovering period related to lower rather than higher welfare chauvinism. Such a paradoxical finding underlines the need for further examination concerning the mechanisms of inter-group solidarity in contexts of persistent and generalized hardship. This dissertation also revealed the protective role of the value of universalism against the exclusion of immigrants from welfare, which can inform evidence-based educational programs towards the promotion of universalism-based ethics. Ultimately, this study contributes to the advancement of social work practice and research across the multicultural and complex European contexts in times of generalized discontent.