A Tragedy With(out) Consequences: the Political Effect of the Messenia Migrant Boat Disaster

Whereas events such as the Fridays For Future movement or the Covid-19 pandemic have put the topic of migration on a comparative “backburner” for some years, crises such as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, or the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, have put migration back on the political agenda. Additionally, recent election results have shown that the issue of immigration is still highly relevant, as right-wing parties have successfully mobilized on anti-immigration campaigns. Migration, that much is clear, matters. However, there is mixed evidence on how singular migration incidents affect (European) immigration attitudes, and we know very little about the impact these crisis events have on the (supply and demand) politics of receiving nations. Utilising a mixed-methos approach, with Eurobarometer data for an Unexpected Event During Survey Design study and Greek party press releases for a qualitative analysis of frames, this paper examines one of the largest fatal migration incidents in recent history, the Messenia boat disaster in June 2023. This study confirms first suggestions that, unlike some unique cases, such as the Alan Kurdi incident, such migration incidents do not generally affect people’s immigration attitudes positively. Furthermore, whereas the Messenia disaster led to protests and both Syriza and New Democracy expressed their sympathy with the victims and highlighted the need for safer migration policies, the political attention was lost quickly.