Migration Policy Centre - MPC

Centre right political parties have been, are and will likely remain key actors in migration policy and politics across Europe. The role in migration politics and the position on migration of the Centre-Right, however, cannot be considered as stable. The increasing salience and politicization of migration in the past decades have not only led to a rise of the Populist Radical Right but have also shaped mainstream parties such as the Centre-Right considerably. Key events such as the 2015 migration crisis and resulting perceptions of increasing (irregular) migration opened up opportunities for the Centre Right to successfully mobilize the electorate. Images of disorder and chaos, closely associated with immigration flows, have raised concerns amongst people with a conservative value orientation who value order and security. Appearing ‘tough’ or proactive on the issue, then, may well appeal to core voters of the Centre-right. Although, since the bulk of studies have concentrated on the anti-immigrant, populist radical right, we have been lacking careful, in-depth analyses of recent election campaigns and results exploring potential positional shifts on and reconfigurations related to immigration of the Centre-Right. These issues are explored in a new Special Issue on Centre-right Parties and Immigration in an Era of Politicization published in the Journal for Ethnic and Migration Studies. In this webinar the editors and authors of this special issue will present key findings from this publication.

• The Centre Right and Immigration in an Era of Politicization: Insights from Europe, Leila Hadj-Abdou, Research Fellow, MPC, RSCAS, EUI and Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Vienna
• The Centre-Right versus the Radical Right: the Role of Migration Issues and Economic Grievances, Denis Cohen, Postdoctoral Fellow, MZES, Data and Methods Unit
• Policy, office, votes – and integrity. The British Conservative Party, Brexit, and immigration, Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London
• Orbán’s political jackpot: migration and the Hungarian electorate, András Bíró-Nagy, Senior Research Fellow, ELKH Center for Social Sciences, Hungary
• Germany as a ‘country of integration’? The immigration policies of the CDU/CSU under Angela Merkel, Isabelle Hertner, Senior Lecturer in Politics of Britain in Europe

Chair: Andrew Geddes, Chair in Migration Studies and Director, MPC, RSCAS, EUI