How challenger parties politicised immigration in Poland during the migration crises

There is an ongoing controversy among migration scholars about which political parties are most influential in politicising immigration, understood as putting the issue on the political agenda and thus contributing to increasing its salience and polarisation. Some point to the crucial role of radical right parties, which as challenger parties, at least indirectly through so-called contagion, influence the strategies of established parties. Other researchers argue that it is the mainstream parties, including in particular the government parties, that actually have the greatest influence on the political agenda and thus on the (non-)emergence of the issue of immigration in the political debate. In Poland, the challenger parties – both right-wing and left-wing – are the only ones to have made immigration a prominent part of their manifestos. However, they are not the ones that have taken advantage of the situation in times of migration crises and become the owners of the issue (at least so far). The aim of this paper is to trace and explain, drawing on content analysis of parliamentary debates, how these parties have tried to politicise immigration in Poland, to what extent they have succeeded, and to what extent they have failed. Particular attention will be paid to the interplay between the challenger and established parties.