Bringing politics back in: the impact of extreme-right parties on immigration policy in the UK, France and Italy during the 2000s

This comparative study examines the impact of extreme-right parties on immigration policy in the UK, France and Italy between 2001 and 2009. The thesis develops a synthesis of two different strands of work in political science: the extreme-right parties’ literature alongside immigration studies. Immigration studies often refer to extreme-right parties as a factor behind restrictive developments on immigration policy whilst ERP literature refers often to immigration but tell us very little about its complexity. Past comparative research throughout the 1990s suggested that members of the extreme-right party family exhibit similar significant levels of impact across different countries. This thesis compares whether the British National Party, the French Front National and the Italian Lega Nord had a significant impact on the three dimensions of immigration politics and policy: inter-party competition; public attitudes; and immigration policy development in the UK, France and Italy. The thesis shows substantial variations in the intensity and contents of extreme-right parties’ impact across the selected dimensions in each country and at cross-national level.