ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

Ethno-regionalist parties’ construction of the collective identity in light of international immigration: ‘othering’ migrants consolidates the minority identity

National Identity
Political Parties
Populism
Identity
Immigration
Comparative Perspective
Narratives
Verena Wisthaler
Eurac Research
Verena Wisthaler
Eurac Research

Abstract

Political elites contribute to the construction of the collective identity and often rely on binary categorisations of insider and outsider. Faced with international immigration, I show how ethno-regionalist parties engage in a process of ‘othering’ migrants. This results in the creation of a hierarchy of migrants who are ‘like us’, the in-group, migrants who are ‘wanted’, and those who are ‘unwanted’ because of a number of criteria, including proximity to the out-group. Based on a comparative content analysis of ethno-regionalist party manifestos, government and coalition programmes, and parliamentary debates between 1992 and 2016 in South Tyrol I show how ‘othering’ migrants serves to further consolidate the minority identity.