Tony Messina
Associate Professor of Political Science,
University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, November 24
12:30 pm
Hesburgh Center, Room C103
"European Immigration Pathways from September 11th: Which Trajectories and What Role for Public Opinion?"
Abstract
Against the backdrop of claims that the events of September 11th have transformed and/or are largely driving politics and policy within the major immigration-receiving countries, this paper poses two related questions. First, has European public opinion objectively become more illiberal on immigration-related questions since September 11th? Specifically, is it significantly less receptive to new immigration and/or less accommodating towards settled immigrants than previously? Second and more subjectively, are Europe’s political elites under unusual pressure to align public policy with the preferences of an increasingly illiberal electorate? Are the parameters of immigration policy making in Europe in the post-September 11th era more circumscribed by public opinion than previously? In order to address these questions this paper pushes as far back as possible in the respective national public opinion records, with special attention paid to the pattern of British, French, and Spanish public attitudes before and after September 11th.
