The ongoing economic crisis that emerged in the wake of the global recession

in 2008, and was followed by the more recent crisis of the Eurozone,

has introduced new themes and remoulded old ways of approaching the

welfare state, immigration, national belonging and racism in Northern

Europe. This article identifies two main ways of understanding welfare

chauvinism: 1) as a broad concept that covers all sorts of claims and policies

to reserve welfare benefits for the ‘native’ population; 2) an ethnonationalist

and racialising political agenda, characteristic especially of

right-wing populist parties. Focusing on the relationship between politics

and policies, we examine how welfare chauvinist political agendas

are turned into policies and what hinders welfare chauvinist claims from

becoming policy matters and welfare practices. It is argued that welfare

chauvinism targeting migrants is part of a broader neoliberal restructuring

of the welfare state and of welfare retrenchment.