Did the “Refugee Crisis” Transform European Politics?

Abstract

Although the so-called “refugee crisis” lasted for just one year, it has transformed European politics. Trying to mitigate the whipped-up frenzy over “migrants” and “terrorists,” mainstream parties and politicians pivoted to the right, unleashing an unprecedented wave of authoritarian, nativist and populist discourses and policies. As the number of asylum seekers dropped, European politics slowly but steadily returned to “normal,” but not to the pre-“crisis” normal. This chapter argues that the right-wing turn might have peaked in late 2016, but that the new “center” is decisively more (populist radical) right than before the “crisis.” It shows that the so-called “refugee crisis” was not just a temporary shock to the system, but led to its transformation in at least four distinct, but related, ways: (1) immigration became a pan-European issue; (2) the far right significantly increased its electoral success; (3) mainstream parties turned to the (far) right in terms of the immigration issue; and (4) there was an Orbánization of European politics. Consequently, while the number of asylum seekers has dropped sharply in the wake of the “crisis” of 2015-6, Europe is left with a dominant narrative in which non-European immigration and multiculturalism are considered threats to European identity and security, which is propagated by both populist radical right and mainstream parties across the European continent.

This is an elaborated version of Mudde (2019b).