The (Mediated) Impact of Radical Right Parties on Immigration Control Legislation

This paper focuses on the question of whether radical right parties (RRPs) have an influence on immigration policy. Based on earlier work on the “contagion effect” of RRPs it is argued that if such a “contagion effect” does take place, and if we believe in the ‘responsible party model’ then we expect parts of RRPs’ policy demands to be transferred into legislative policy output. Thus, RRP impact is mediated by (1) putting the mainstream parties under considerable pressure, which leads them to shift their policy positions towards more skeptical stances on immigration and (2) by shifting the median position away from a pro-immigration position, constraints for restrictive policy-making are removed and the adoption of restrictive regulations becomes more likely. I examine these propositions with a novel dataset that combines party positions, vote shares, and legislative changes in immigration policy over a large number of countries and legislative periods.