The Asylum-Far Right Nexus in Rural Areas. Towards a meso-level theorization

Since 2015, mediatised episodes of protest and hostility towards refugees in rural areas in Europe have contributed to the perception of an alleged nexus between reception and the electoral success of far-right populist parties. However, despite the increasing interest of academic research, a patchy understanding of the factors and mechanisms driving the emergence of an asylum-far right nexus in rural areas persists. Whereas public opinion surveys emphasise the nationalistic orientation of rural Europe, research on policymaking has unravelled cases of welcoming and pragmatism. In this paper I provide a critical discussion of existing literature and put forward an alternative, meso-level approach to the theorization of the asylum-far right nexus in rural areas. I posit that Far Right Parties strategies to politicize asylum in rural areas will reflect locally specific structures of incentives that are shaped by the institutional and political factors underlying the reception and integration of refugees. Institutional factors regard the norms and rules that specify the responsibilities assigned to local authorities – i.e., the mayor or other elected local officials – on key implementation aspects of reception and integration policy like finding a facility, selecting services providers, defining numbers of refugees etc. Political factors regard the multilevel political conflicts that can take place: i) on the vertical dimension, between the rural municipalities hosting refugees and governmental authorities at different levels; and ii) on the horizontal dimension, a) between public and non-public actors (cooperatives and NGOs) involved in providing reception services, b) between hosting municipalities and other localities within the RPAs, and c) between hosting municipalities and the main city/ies within the same RPA or in neighbouring electoral districts. In stepping stones scenarios, rules emphasising the responsibility of mayors/local councillors combine with highly conflictual relations on the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The politicization of asylum reception by FRPs will be more likely to occur in what I call stepping stones scenarios, that is in rural areas where rules emphasising the responsibility of mayors/local councillors combine with highly conflictual relations on the vertical and horizontal dimensions. In these contexts, FRPs can build contentious and anti-élite discourses that resonate beyond the rural area, leading to electoral payoff in crucial national elections. To complement the argument, the paper will present preliminary data analyses on the case of Italy on electoral results for different types of election in the 10 years in rural areas.