Immigration as the Antagonist? How Emotional Underpinning Generated by Immigrants Affect Populist Attitudes

In Latin America, populism is not a novel phenomenon. There are three waves for its temporal classification: the classical period (1930-1940), neo-populism (1980-1990) and radical populism (from 2000 onwards). Each of them has unique characteristics in terms of discourse, host ideology and relation between the elite and citizenry. Yet, the exodus of Venezuelans throughout the region has apparently awaken a populist-nativist sentiment, both in candidates and leaders of political parties, as in the electorate, in which noncitizen residents (immigrants) are perceived as the “unpresentable other”. Employing an online dataset of 1,344 responses, promoted via Facebook, we examine the emotional underpinning of Ecuadorians vis- à-vis immigration, as well as their populist attitudes as latent variables. Thus, first in this article we explore the possibility to theoretically rethink the current populist wave in the region, and potentially construct a fourth wave of populism, a nativist-populism in Latin America. Second, it corroborates to what extend prior hypotheses of the European literature about the populist link between the negative emotions of the electorate and their intention to vote, particularly by far-right populist parties, travel to Latin America. We find that negative emotions fuel populist attitudes in the Ecuadorian electorate. We also report that negative emotions towards immigration become higher as the flow of immigrants increase in the country (of destination). Additionally, anger, fear and disappointment towards immigration partially conditions resident citizens' intention to vote.