Week 4

My presentation argues that the million+ migration to Europe from MENA (Middle East and North African) states beginning in 2015 led to the rise of populist right parties. Kept on the margins of European politics since the end of WWII, right parties used the influx of asylum seekers and other migrants to mobilize and broaden their constituencies, force migration to the center of national politics, and successfully challenge dominant mainstream (center-left and center-right) parties. Right parties added anti-immigrant appeals to their established anti-EU stances and focus on the long-term decline of welfare states and labor markets under mainstream parties. Concentrating on Germany, Italy, Sweden and Poland, I analyze public opinion, populist parties’ electoral appeals, and growth in their electoral support from 2015 to 2025. Populists succeeded by scapegoating migrants for Europeans’ economic and social problems and by amplifying real but localized Islamist terrorist attacks into existential threats to Europe’s security. I show populists’ influence in pushing mainstream parties to take stronger anti-immigrant stances, and explain the strategies  these parties have used to freeze populist out of government coalitions, or the form alliances with them.

Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 in Cook, Linda (2024) Welfare Nationalism in Europe and Russia: The Politics of 21st Century Exclusionary and Inclusionary Migrations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (sent to registered participants via email)