Anti-Immigrant Attitudes and Political Participation in Europe

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between anti-immigration attitudes and political participation in European democracies. Using data from the European Social Survey (2002–2018), we first show that a participation gap between pro- and anti-immigrant citizens exists for all types of political participation, even though the gap in voting is relatively small. The analyses also show that leftist and centrist anti-immigrant citizens participate less than leftist and centrist pro-immigration citizens, whereas their right-leaning counterparts participate almost as much in politics as do right-leaning pro-immigrant citizens. The observed participation gap points to the fact that there is a reservoir of anti-immigrant leftist and centrist citizens potentially waiting to be mobilized in many European countries.