Immigration within the European Union Increases Support for Eurosceptic Parties

Abstract

What are the political consequences of immigration? Theoretically, the mechanisms of intergroup contact and outgroup threat can lead to contradictory effects, and it remains uncertain which one would prevail in different contexts. In this article I study the impact of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on support for Eurosceptic parties between 2004 and 2019 in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Portugal. I find that higher levels of immigration from CEE are systematically related to higher voting shares cast for right-wing Eurosceptic parties at the local level in all of these countries, net of the influence of non-Western immigration. In most countries, the effects are also robust to including a rich set of local-level socio-economic controls. These effects can be found in elections for the European Parliament as well as in national elections. The effects have not diminished over the past 15 years and are most visible in mid-sized localities. The effect on left-wing Euroscepticism is positive in the Netherlands, but negative in Denmark, Sweden and Italy. These results highlight the tension between free movement and political support for European integration. Even in the European Union, immigration from other member states can trigger hostile political reactions.