Elections, Party Rhetoric, and Public Attitudes Toward Immigration in Europe
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11109_2021_9695_ReferencePDF.pdf
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215.57 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Dekeyser, Elizabeth
Freedman, Michael
Date Issued
June 21, 2021
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Dekeyser, Elizabeth and Freedman, Michael. 2021. "Elections, Party Rhetoric, and Public Attitudes Toward Immigration in Europe."
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Abstract
Recent elections have highlighted how electoral cycles are often accompanied by increases in negative rhetoric surrounding immigration. Exploiting as-if random assignment in individual interview dates for the European Social Survey, this paper examines how proximity to elections affects individual preferences on immigration. We find that closer to elections, attitudes toward immigration become more negative. This effect is primarily driven by country-elections where party platforms are more likely to include anti-immigrant rhetoric. When elections are more distant, these effects largely disappear, highlighting the possibility that anti-immigration electoral mandates are based on artificially inflated concerns of the electorate about immigration. Overall, these results provide important insights into how elections influence issue stances and social cohesion in Europe.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-021-09695-w
