The relationship between immigration policy and the welfare state is debated among scholars. Some scholars argue that there is an obvious trade-off. They therefore expect political leaders who wish to expand or preserve the welfare state to restrict immigration. Other scholars argue that there is no such contradiction; indeed, there are those who believe that there is in fact a positive relationship between the welfare state and openness to at least some forms of immigration. The talk will put these debates in historical perspective by analyzing the co-evolution of immigration policy and the welfare state when the welfare state first emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.