Is Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Owned by the Political Right

European Studies, Postsocialism, Migration Studies,Politics of Knowledge, Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231161206
Publication Date: 2023 | Publication Name: Sociology

In political and social scientific discourses, the link between right-wing political orientation and anti-immigrant sentiment is often presented as a universal social fact. Based on a systematic examination of the association between left-right political orientation and attitudes towards migrants, the article demonstrates a clear inconsistency in the strength and direction of this presumed association in postsocialist European countries. We provide two analytical explanations for this inconsistency. The first challenges the western-centric idea that people leaning towards the political right tend to hold conservative views that shape their tendency to express antiimmigrant sentiment. The second explanation pertains to the limited relevance of the left-right political orientation scale for postsocialist subjects, making it difficult to attribute anti-immigrant sentiment to specific political orientations. In conclusion, we discuss specific social identities of the holders of hostile attitudes towards outsiders in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe, which western-centric analytical models do not capture.