Irregular migration and the rise of the far-right in the EU

Abstract

Throughout this dissertation, the researcher has used a mixed research methodology and a comparative case study in order to evaluate the revival of far-right politics throughout Europe. The purpose of this research is to highlight the connection between the large influxes of irregular immigrants into Europe with the rise of far-right parties. The study will focus on the rise of far-right parties in Italy, Germany and France.

The theory established in this dissertation was that the citizens who are voting for these extremist parties are voting for them as a form of protest. This phenomenon is known as the protest thesis, it describes how people may turn to extremist solutions when they feel that they are not being adequately represented by the current governments. The protest thesis states that when citizens are in such scenarios they tend to either not vote or use their vote as a form of retaliation. Some citizens tend to become frustrated with the number of irregular and regular migrants that are residing in their countries, and in turn they might feel that the current government is not tackling the migration issue sufficiently. Hence people look out to leaders who promote stricter migration laws and who put national interests first.

These three countries were chosen as they excellently demonstrate how far-right parties have risen in recent years. The three parties which this study has focused on were Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord, Alexander Gauland’s Alternative for Germany and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. This study aims to answer how far-right politics and parties have evolved. A second sub-research question has been established in order to present this transformation. Far-right parties are not the same as they were before, they have now adopted more populistic techniques. The new far-right is nationalistic populism. It is for this reason that the dissertation also presents a comparative study on how the far-right parties have evolved. This is done through a comparison of the far-right of the Second World War (WWII), the far-right after WWII and the far-right of the 21st Century

After this transformation of far-right politics has been established, the study answers the main research question. This research focused on the Migration Crisis of 2015; it was a period which saw record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into European borders. To gain perspective with regards to the effects of irregular migration on the politics of Europe, this research has studied election results of the Lega Nord, Alternative for Germany and the National Rally, prior to the Migration Crisis and after the Migration Crisis. This study reviewed both state elections and European elections in order to obtain a better image of the outcome. The results did indeed show that after the Migration Crisis the parties in question enjoyed better electorate representation.