Support and Opposition to Migration
Professor Roger Eatwell, Dean of Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, is part of a project looking at Support and Opposition to Migration (SOM).
The project will increase knowledge about migration-related political dynamics. It will also provide policy-relevant information.
Funded by the European Commission as part of the Seventh Framework Programme, the study will look at when and under which conditions potential conflict over migration becomes politicised.
Examining anti-immigration and anti-racist movements, the study will focus on what role the state, political parties, social movements and the media play in politicising or depoliticising issues of immigration. Research will be carried out in Austria, Belgium, Britain, Ireland,the Netherlands,Spain and Switzerland; seven countries that are affected by large-scale migration to Europe.
In some countries, this scale of migration has led to tensions in host communities. In others, the presence of migrants is not politically contested. The way migration becomes a political issue varies significantly between countries.
"The very rise of the British National Party (BNP) heightens not only minority fears, but also the chances of some form of violent reaction," says Professor Eatwell. "Moreover, changes within both domestic ethnic minority communities and the international scene have brought such a nightmare closer to reality."
"Public debates around immigration involve not only defining the borders of inclusion and exclusion regarding state territory, but also welfare systems, labour markets and 'communities of belonging'," says Dr Wunderlich. "The SOM project focuses on what shapes these debates and why immigration becomes politicised in some but not other countries. It has considerable significance for understanding more general dynamics in Western European societies and will provide unique comparative insights into the politicisation of migration over the last two decades."
Research aims
- Increasing knowledge about conflicts over the social and political participation of immigrants in Western Europe.
- Determining why and when potential conflicts become politicised, examining both anti-immigration and anti-racist movements.
- Increasing knowledge of how institutional conditions constrain processes of politicisation.
- Providing policy-relevant information by assessing which actions of state institutions are successful in managing conflict on immigration and integration.
News and related information
- SOM Project
- EU Seventh Framework Programme
- Community Cohesion and Cumulative Extremism in Contemporary Britain - The Political Quarterly [PDF]
- The New Extremism in 21st Century Britain (Extremism and Democracy) - Edited by Roger Eatwell and Matthew J. Goodwin. More about the book...
