Electoral Chairs’ Seminars – 2 March

The Pro-Immigration Europeans

Rahsaan Maxwell (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

One of the central conflicts in Western Europe is whether nation-states should be open or closed to immigration and ethnic diversity.  These issues have been at the center of election campaigns and may structure debates about the future of European societies. However, analysis of these debates tends to focus on the anti-immigration side, because those views are considered abhorrent and in need of explanation.  People who do not hold anti-immigration views are considered normal and have not been rigorously analyzed. This oversight is unfortunate because pro-immigration sentiments may be a unique and complex set of preferences that are more than just the opposite of anti-immigration sentiments. Moreover, the depth of commitment to pro-immigration perspectives is unclear, as many Europeans may be neutral or have conditional preferences. I am writing a book that comprehensively analyzes pro-immigration people, which is essential for better understanding the future of immigration politics in Europe. I will present some of the preliminary results in this talk.  

Contact Semih Çakır if you would like to participate in the seminar.

This content has been updated on 10 March 2022 at 10 h 24 min.