Special Symposium of Comparative Migration Studies

摘要

In recent years, asylum issues have become increasingly contentious in Western Europe and have been at the core of electoral campaigns in several EU Member States (Kaunert, 2009; 2010; Kaunert and Léonard, 2012). In several countries in the European Union (EU), populist or radical right-wing parties campaigning on an anti-immigration platform have achieved strong electoral scores, including the True Finns in Finland, the Freedom Party in Austria under Joerg Haider and, more recently, Heinz-Christian Strache, the National Front in France, the Northern League in Italy, the People’s Party in Denmark, as well as the Freedom Party under Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. As a result of the often salient character of asylum and migration during electoral campaigns, many states have seen frequent policy reforms in the area of asylum and migration. However, in most countries, strong rhetoric on migration matters is not exclusive to radical parties, but rather permeates the whole electoral debate. This can be seen in the promises made by politicians such as David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy to considerably reduce the number of migrants if elected, which they made during their electoral campaigns in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Thus, European governments widely see migration as a challenge and their migration policies in need of reform. In many cases, these national debates have been inexorably linked to reflections on (national) identity and – especially since 2009 – economic fears. Migration from outside the EU has become an ever more politicised area in domestic spheres which has shifted upwards to the European level and even outwards towards the external sphere (Lavenex, 2006).