The role of political parties in the politicisation of immigration in Poland between 2015 and 2021

The role of political parties in the politicisation of immigration, understood as the increased salience and polarisation of this topic in public and political debate, is considered by researchers to be crucial. It is even more important than structural factors, such as the scale of immigration or critical events. However, this role still raises many doubts and controversies. The main disagreement is between those who argue that far-right parties have the greatest influence on the politicisation of immigration and those who show that it is mainstream parties, especially centre-right parties or government parties, that play a leading role in this process. This paper aims to present the preliminary results of the study on this topic, conducted in Poland, based on the analysis of parliamentary debates and media statements of party leaders between 2015 (European migration crisis) and 2021 (crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border). In Poland, the process of politicisation of immigration by political parties takes place in a different way than in Western European countries. This is why theoretical concepts explaining the situation in the Western European region do not fully apply to Poland. The main factors contributing to this differentiation seem to be the narrower scope of the functioning of the ‘antipopulist’ norm in Poland and the phase of the migration cycle of Poland, which, unlike Western European countries, has only recently become an immigration country.