“QUALITY OF GOVERNMENT- FOR ALL?” QoG & Migrants' equal access to social rights

Abstract

The extent to which migrants can enjoy equal social rights as citizens vary between liberal democracies. Quality of government has been at the center of recent decades´ debates on states´ non-partial treatment of citizens. Despite an intuitive connection between Quality of government and migrants´ rights, the relationship has not been investigated theoretically or empirically yet. By arguing that the relationship is connected on two levels, one at the level of bureaucratic, juridical, and political elites and one indirect link through the level of public opinion, the thesis hypothesizes that Quality of government is positively associated with migrants' social rights. The hypothesis is tested in a linear regression with panel-corrected standard errors by investigating time-series cross-section data. The results from 18 countries between 1984-2010 indicate that there is no robust evidence for the hypothesis. For future research, longer time series and wider country coverage are required to draw more confident conclusions about a relationship.