The politicization of European integration and support for restrictive migration policies

Abstract

Why do individuals in Central and Eastern Europe support parties and candidates that hold restrictive positions on migration? I argue that the mobilization of public opinion against the European integration of external migration management is a cause. To test, I employ an experiment in Slovakia that combines a between-subjects experiment with a candidate-choice conjoint. Results indicate strong support for restrictive migration policies generally and that ideology moderates reactions to messages about European Union influence. In response to these messages, liberals shift toward restrictive policy preferences; conservatives do not. These differential effects suggest that messages about European Union influence run up against ceiling effects, where entrenched anti-migration preferences prevent attitudinal change. This paper identifies the limited set of conditions under which the mobilization of public opinion against European integration influences attitudes and electoral preferences.

Visual Conjoint vs. Text Conjoint and the Differential Discriminatory Effect of (Visible) Social Categories

“…A.4 we incorporate regression tables with a full description of the value quantities presented in the figures: AMCEs and the marginal difference between MMs. As we are testing multiple hypothetical results at the same time, we also report Benjamini-Hochberg correction for the benchmark model to adjust for multiple comparisons and therefore prevent false positive discovery rates (Hlatky, 2023;Liu & Shiraito, 2023). In the Appendix Sect.…”

Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse

“…Another explanation is that Slovak politics are marked by a gulf between the coalition and the opposition parties so deep that whatever new situation arises, the parties will perceive it through the prism of their long-term fortified positions, including a situation that was able to unite political representation elsewhere. Based on the research about the influence of elite cues on Slovak society (Gyárfášová and Hlatky, 2023;Hlatky, 2023;Onderco and Stoeckel, 2023), we hypothesize that as the Slovak political elites have failed to unify or at least maintain the same level of political discourse polarization during another significant crisis in Slovakia, it will negatively affect Slovak society with more fragmentation and greater vulnerability to foreign interventions.…”

“…The evaluations of Slovak leaders were found to be influenced more by the strong branding of political leaders and their personal opinions, rather than ideological proximity to these leaders (Gyárfášová and Hlatky, 2023). Slovak voters were also found to react strongly to cues from political elites regarding European migration policies (Hlatky, 2023). On an individual level, it was found that conspiratorial thinking among Slovaks is linked to their support for anti-Western parties, which are actively spreading conspiracy cues (Onderco and Stoeckel, 2023).…”

Palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism: the mitigating role of institutional trust in shaping attitudes toward migrants and migration policy preferences

“…In many European countries, growing dissatisfaction with politicians’ response to the migration crisis has led to a rise in support for populist parties, which often capitalize on the sense of fear and threat posed by immigrants and promote restrictive migration policies ( Guzi et al, 2021 ). Negative attitudes toward migrants and restrictive migration policy preferences have been shown to be particularly strong in Central and Eastern European regions ( Schlueter et al, 2013 ; Heath and Richards, 2016 , 2019 , 2020 ; Csanyi and Kucharčík, 2023 ; Hlatky, 2023 ). Unsurprisingly, researchers seek to understand the psychological roots of these attitudes in order to potentially reduce negative feelings of fear and threat of immigrants and dampen prejudice and hostility toward them.…”