Blaming Brussels? The Impact of (News about) the Refugee Crisis on Attitudes towards the EU and National Politics

Abstract

This paper investigates how the refugee crisis has affected attitudes towards the EU, as well as attitudes towards national institutions. By combining different waves of individual survey data, official records of asylum applications and a content analysis of the media, we examine the effect of the numbers of asylum applications and the amount of media coverage thereof on citizens' attitudes towards the EU and national politics. Our findings demonstrate that the number of asylum applications in the EU and the media attention this generates primarily affect euroscepticism, while the number of asylum applications into each individual Member State first and foremost affects attitudes towards national institutions. Our results contribute to the literature on democratic accountability, by demonstrating that, even in a complex multi-level governance structure, citizens differentiate between levels of government.

Rules of engagement: Reactions to internal and external criticism in public debate

“…The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that just under two million refugees have entered Europe through the Mediterranean since 2014 (UNHCR, ). During that time, Europe has seen political upheavals over how to respond to this influx with strong debates in all societies, including the Netherlands where the current research was conducted (Harteveld, Schaper, De Lange, & Van Der Brug, ). In this polarized debate, some people emphasize the need to support these newcomers and criticize the lack of hospitality and humanitarianism, while others favour border closure and claim that the newcomers are ‘fortune seekers’ who endanger the stability of society (Van Prooijen, Krouwel, & Emmer, ; Verkuyten, Mepham, & Kros, ).…”

How media shape political trust: News coverage of immigration and its effects on trust in the European Union

“…In sum, tone and visibility of political media coverage can have differential and complementary effects on political attitudes and voting behavior (Geiß and Sch€ afer, 2017). While Harteveld et al (2018) have found an effect of media visibility of immigration on Euroscepticism, there is no research on media effects on EU trust in particular. Furthermore, previous studies have not distinguished between tone and visibility, or different kinds of immigration, namely 'regular' immigration and refugees.…”

EU Refugee Policies and Politics in Times of Crisis: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

“…While responsibility was shifted towards other Member States and third countries, Member States could not shift the blame for higher application numbers to the inefficiencies of the EU. Even though European publics these days are often assumed to be easily manipulated by eurosceptic politicians who shift the blame for national policy failure to the EU, Harteveld et al (2017) argue that publics see through the blame-game of domestic politicians and are aware that the poor crisis response cannot be blamed solely on the EU but that Member States are also partially responsible. They demonstrate that the number of asylum applications in the EU and the media attention this generates primarily affect euroscepticism, whereas the number of asylum applications into each Member State affects attitudes towards national institutions and governments.…”