Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- The logics and politics of post-WWII migration to Western Europe
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Origins and Trajectory of Post-WWII Immigration
- 3 The Organized Nativist Backlash
- 4 Immigration and State Sovereignty
- 5 The Logics and Politics Of a European Immigration Policy Regime
- 6 The Domestic Legacies of Postwar Immigration
- 7 The Logics and Politics of Immigrant Political Incorporation
- 8 Conclusions
- References
- Index
3 - The Organized Nativist Backlash
The Surge of Anti-Immigrant Groups
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- The logics and politics of post-WWII migration to Western Europe
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Origins and Trajectory of Post-WWII Immigration
- 3 The Organized Nativist Backlash
- 4 Immigration and State Sovereignty
- 5 The Logics and Politics Of a European Immigration Policy Regime
- 6 The Domestic Legacies of Postwar Immigration
- 7 The Logics and Politics of Immigrant Political Incorporation
- 8 Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
The sense of distrust that distinguishes a large majority of radical right-wing supporters … stems from the perception that the established political parties have neglected … certain issues…. Among these issues, the question of immigration appears to have become the central issue.
(Hans-Georg Betz, 1994: 67)The conditions that facilitate the success of the [radical] right are entwined with the party's own agency.
(Martin Schain, Aristide Zolberg, and Patrick Hossay, 2002b: 6)Although the disparate waves of postwar immigration have different origins and characteristics, as we have seen in Chapter 2, each converges into a single coherent phenomenon. With the onset of the first wave of predominantly labor immigration, a new economic, political, and social context with regard to immigration was established, a context that, once embedded, became self perpetuating.
Among the most important political features of this new context is the surge of popular support for anti-immigrant groups, movements, and political parties. As we shall see in this chapter, anti-immigrant groups are in the vanguard of the domestic actors attempting to politicize state immigration policies and issues related to the permanent settlement of the new ethnic and racial minorities. Since the 1970s, they have proliferated across Western Europe, provoking considerable consternation among traditional political elites and mass publics.
The political influence of anti-immigrant groups and their chances of future electoral success should not be overestimated. Nowhere in Western Europe are these groups poised to force radical change in state immigration or immigrant policy (Minkenberg 2001).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007