Just a Shadow? The Role of Radical Right Parties in the Politicization of Immigration, 1995–2009

Abstract

The paper explores the role of radical right parties in the politicization of immigration. In scholarly literature, radical right parties are viewed as the owners of the immigration issue and as drivers of its politicization. Against this prevalent view, we argue that the significance of radical right parties in politicizing immigration is overrated: (1) Radical right parties only play a subordinate role in the politicization of immigration, whereas the contribution of mainstream parties to raising issue salience has been underestimated; (2) the politicization of immigration is not related to radical right strength in the party system. The findings are based on media data from a comparative project on public claims-making on immigration in Western European countries (SOM, Support and Opposition to Migration). We discuss our findings in comparison to the relevant literature and suggest avenues for further research.

Politicizing immigration in Western Europe

“…They conclude that 'politicisation is very much a top-down process, in which government parties play an especially important role' (Van der Brug et al 2015: 195). This is in line with work by Bale (2008), Green-Pedersen and Krogstrup (2008) and Meyer and Rosenberger (2015) who argue that mainstream center-right parties are the main drivers of the politicization of immigration issues in Europe.…”

Party Positions on Economic Criteria for Naturalization in Austria

“…Against findings in recent literature, which doubt the relevance of far‐right parties for politicizing immigration and its consequences for policy making (Akkerman, ; Meyer and Rosenberger, ; Sredanovic, ), this article shows the opposite in the case of economic requirements for naturalization in Austria. In the analysed press releases and parliamentary materials, it was clearly right‐wing authoritarian parties who set this agenda and transformed their positions into policy when in government.…”

Citizenship Regimes and the Politicization of Immigrant Groups

“…Actors were classified according to their function during coding. Of interest in this article are civil-society organizations, left-wing parties, and anti-immigrant organizations (including anti-immigrant parties because there are too few claims by anti-immigrant parties to treat them separately -see Meyer and Rosenberger (2015) on the misconception that anti-immigrant parties make most claims on immigrants; see appendix A4 for party classifications), while all other actors are combined in a residual category. Civil-society organizations comprise different kinds of organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGO) and religious organizations, but exclude anti-immigrant organizations.…”