Securitizing and Politicizing Immigration: Spain, UK, and US

• In Event: Immigration, Documentation, and Social Protection in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper considers the impacts of the increased salience of immigration and antecedent changes in the international and domestic security environments on popular and elite opinion and political party policies in the United Kingdom, Spain, and United States since the events of September 11th. Recent scholarship on the politicization of immigration in Europe and the United States has illuminated when such issues become politicized, under which political conditions, and by whom. However, conspicuously ignored by this scholarship is the degree to which a shift of issue frames – a shift largely precipitated by the mass media and/or anti-immigrant political parties – affects the propensity of mainstream political parties either to compete or converge on immigration-related issues.

This paper’s central hypothesis is that the increased association of immigration with security in media and political discourse will cause public opinion, elite attitudes, and political party platforms on immigration-related issues to converge and precipitate the depoliticization of immigration, or the diminution of inter-political party competition, on the issue. The paper draws its evidence from the country case studies, two original surveys of Members of the European Parliament, and a secondary analysis of political party manifestoes.

Author

• Anthony M. Messina, Trinity College