I am for reducing or better put shifting the social safety net from the welfare state to voluntary community based institutions, charitable enterprises and for profit ones. A decentralized network of aid organizations would be more nimble, efficient and responsive to societies needs than clunky slow moving government.
Although, I do think people overstate the amount the welfare state acts as a “magnet” for immigration. Most immigrants are not running to welfare but from oppressive regimes and economies destroyed by their own governments, foreign intervention and the drug war.
When immigrants arrive it is not shocking that they may find the struggle here exists as opportunities have become more scarce for everyone due to the effects of licensing, taxation and regulation.
As citizens do, immigrants feeling the pinch of bad economic policy may find themselves reaching for the social safety net. The problem is instead of us working together to fight against the growing burden of government to restore opportunities for everyone we attack each other over the crumbs of a dwindling pie empowering government further.
What a welfare state does do is feed that resentment, it creates a reason for people to look at each other as scapegoats for their frustrations. People assuming all welfare state beneficiaries are undeserving and leeches whether because their background, legal status, or class when in reality we are all the victims of the destroyer of opportunities that is growing government intervention around the world, in the economy, and in our personal lives.
We are all struggling, instead of fighting each other let’s fight against the institution putting us against each other... large intrusive expensive compulsory government policies.
We do foster care through the state, and just recently a private funded organization came to the area. They still work within the state mandates, but from what I've seen, it's much more efficient - even with state regs.