Submission Date

4-28-2025

Document Type

Paper

Department

Politics

Adviser

Rebecca Evans

Committee Member

Johannes Karreth

Committee Member

Celine Brossillon

Department Chair

Ann Karreth

Project Description

As anti-immigration sentiments have increased across the world, border restrictions have come under the spotlight from extremist right parties (ERPs). In a number of countries, ERPs are gaining support from their immigration rhetoric, which calls for heavily restricting or sometimes closing borders. This thesis examines the impact of restrictive border policies on support for anti-immigration platforms and ERPs. Using the Dataset of World Refugee and Asylum Policies Index and voting records of ERPs over time, a relationship between anti-immigration parties and border restrictions is hypothesized to produce one of three results: the more restrictive a border, the more likely an ERP is to gain electoral success, the less restrictive a border, the more likely an ERP is to gain success, or border restrictions do not have an effect on the level of support for ERPs. The results of this study support the null hypothesis since neither more restrictive nor more open border policies have a consistent effect on support for ERPs. A close examination of the contrasting cases of Slovenia and Slovakia shows that border policies can have opposing effects, depending on the national context.

Download

Share

COinS