The Geography of Nativism: Urban-rural Divides in Immigration Attitudes

• In Event: Comparative Politics is Local: Local Politics in the Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Tensions around immigration constitute one of the core sources of populist movements across the West (e.g., Judis, 2017). In most countries, there are significant differences in attitudes towards immigration between urban and rural or small town areas (e.g., Maxwell, 2017). This has set the stage for intensifying polarization, as these drift further apart in their partisan preferences. This paper examines the geography of such urban-rural divides in four countries – Australia, Canada, France and Germany – using data from VoteCompass, an interactive voter information tool. VoteCompass generates massive samples, which allow precise estimates of the geography of public opinion. Drawing on this data, the paper examines the extent to which such divides vary across countries, whether certain electoral systems exacerbate them, and how sub-national regionalism plays a substantial role in partisan strategies in relation to nativism. In addition, the paper dissects the causes of such divides in attitudes.

Author

• Joshua C. Gordon, Simon Fraser University