This dissertation casts a wide net in order to explain the recent emergence and proliferation of the contemporary anti-immigration movement in the United States. Anti-immigration activism is an understudied but not entirely overlooked phenomenon. Yet, we know incredibly little about an important set of macro- and micro- questions related to contemporary anti-immigration activism. This dissertation addresses big-picture mobilization questions, such as: What large-scale, historical preconditions set the stage for the emergence and proliferation of contemporary anti-immigration activism in the United States? And how--and through what general processes--has pro-migrant countermobilization influenced the anti-immigration movement and, perhaps, unintentionally spurred its growth? Finally, I address micro-level questions focused around the mechanics of micromobilization: How and why do individuals support anti-immigration activism? How and why do individuals become motivated to engage in anti-immigration activity? and How and why do individuals ultimately participate in anti-immigration-related activism? In sum, both big-picture and small-scale questions anchor this dissertation. By answering these I not only shed light on this specific case but also make a number of more general contributions to social movement literature.

In political and popular discourse about immigration and integration, Europe is referred to as both fundamentally secular and fundamentally Christian depending on the context. Even if only a minority of the population in many Western European countries actually practise their religion, many continue to identify with Christianity as cultural tradition, without the beliefs and practice one would normally associate with a religious identity. Few empirical studies have analysed the relationship between religious and national identities in modern Europe. Using a combination of qualitative interviews and quantitative survey research with data from the International Social Survey Programme 2008 in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland, this thesis explores how religious affiliation, belief and practice are associated with anti-immigration attitudes and regarding Christianity as important for nationality. Factor analysis is used to explore different dimensions of national identity and how they relate to religious conceptions of the nation, and multivariate regression models address how experiencing immigration as a threat to national identity is associated with Christian affiliation and practice. The main finding is that Christian identification is positively associated with seeing immigration as a threat to national identity, whereas churchgoing is negatively associated with anti-immigration attitudes. There are two identifiable mechanisms that explain this finding. Firstly, 'Christian' can signify national cultural heritage or white ethnicity rather than faith. Hence those who identify as Christian, however loosely, are on average more likely to be nationalist or xenophobic. Secondly, since churchgoers will be more sympathetic to religion in general they also tend to be less negative towards Muslims and other religious minorities. The findings are contextualised through the use of qualitative interviews and comparative analysis of countries, addressing both the external influences and internal experiences that contribute to specific associations.

This bachelor’s thesis examines the causes behind the support of radical right and anti-immigration parties by those with a non-native background. Building on findings of previous research and the funnel of causality, a set of variables consisting of anti-immigration views and socio-economic factors are examined to determine their causal effect on the support for the Sweden Democrats among the non-native swedish population. Utilising data from Syd-SOM 2015 and Väst-SOM 2015, no support were found for the hypothesis that those with a non-native background support the Sweden Democrats on the basis of socio-economic factors. Support were found however for the hypothesis that anti-immigration views among non-natives are an important cause for their support of the Sweden Democrats.

The prime objective of this thesis is to grasp the terms of continuity and discontinuity between classical fascism and the contemporary extreme right in Western Europe. With respect to a hypothetical ideal type of fascism, the study will exclusively focus on French Front National case and try to unveil its historical and ideological linkages to the fascist rules in Italy and Germany during the inter-war years. While doing this, the transformation (if any) which certain elements of the extreme right rhetoric went through, will also be examined.

This is an analysis of flank and shift effects in political sociology that focuses on anti-immigrant parties in eight European countries. In a positive radical flank effect the radical party makes the moderate and mildly-threatening parties look good. In turn, that moderate party then gains power or at least many of their ends. A negative radical flank effect occurs when the actual or perceived association of the moderate party with the radical party causes the moderate party to lose support. Radical shift effects are when the moderate or conservative party shifts its policy toward the radical direction. In this case, the radical party may become a coalition partner with the moderate or conservative party. And conservative or moderate shift is when the radical party shifts its policy toward a more moderate direction in order to assume power or court votes. The radical flank effects have some currency in the civil rights literature, but the other two effects have been largely ignored. This thesis shows that the radical shifts, radical flank, and moderate shift effects do have explanatory value in political sociology.

Immigration is one of the effects, one of the symptoms of the ill-functioning and outdated machine that is the elite. Immigration and asylum-seeking have been frequent topics in public debates for years. The number of refugees making their way from war-torn regions of the world to Sweden makes the citizen versus asylum-seeker dichotomy highly relevant for social psychology research about discursively constituted identities. That is to say: how social-categorizations, emotions and attitudes are created in text and talk. Today, public opinion is largely produced online, this makes it possible to explore the motivations, strategies and goals of “the nonracist racist” on Facebook. This study utilizes a dual-edged approach in that coding is done both from an inductive- and a deductive direction. It adheres to a discursive psychology approach and follows Potter and Edward’s (2001) situated, action-oriented and constructed features of discourse. These theoretical features inform the deductive coding and are contextualized using Sakki and Pettersson’s (2016) three representation of otherness with subsequent six discourses produced by the populist radical right. Findings indicate that cultural comparison constructing cultural incompatibility is the main rhetorical resource for constructing the citizen versus asylum-seeker dichotomy. However, this dichotomy is not the most dominant “us and them” construction by the “nonracist racist”. “The elite versus the people” is the most common “us and them” construction. It carries significant weight that the seemingly unfiltered expressions of hatred on anti-immigration pages on Facebook are more concerned with what “we” are doing wrong rather than what is wrong with any “deviant others”. It is more about an internal clash of moral compasses than it is about a supposed clash of civilizations. Along with the occasioned feature of discourse, this partly explains why anti-immigration advocates for example position themselves as victims or defenders.

“Filter bubble” became one of the most topical words of 2016 and it was even included in the Swedish Language Council's list of new Swedish words that was presented at the end of the year. Referring to algorithmically adapted media bubbles, this phenomenon has particularly been discussed in relation to the UK Brexit referendum and the US election as scholars and journalist argue that the phenomenon, in combination with a fragmented media usage, contribute to a political polarization where each side of the political spectrum is encapsulated in “echo chambers” where opinions and beliefs are repeated like an echo rather than contested and challenged.  In a Swedish context, filter bubbles and echo chambers have mainly been discussed in relation to anti-immigration internet media (AIIM), such as Avpixlat, Fria Tider and Exponerat, as these, through their critique of established journalistic media's (EJM) reporting, appear to constitute one side of a polarized debate around immigration. Through online interviews with 13 users of AIIM, this thesis is aimed at understanding why people consume such media and if the consumers are affected by echo chambers.  Drawing on theories on online echo chambers and radical media critique, the study's findings suggest that even though the respondents’ appear to thrive on a siege mentality where anti-immigration groups are excluded sub-groups with AIIM as their only solution, the respondents' consumption of AIIM (and critique of EJM) is more likely to be based on a combination of a low level of trust in society and strong political (right-wing) beliefs. Furthermore, the study shows that the respondents are likely to be affected by both fragmentation and filter bubbles, but that they are not completely isolated in an anti-immigration media bubbles as they also rely on EJM's reporting in several ways.

abstract: Over the past twenty years, the state of Arizona has increasingly become a key location for the debate surrounding immigration and border policy in the United States. Its geographical position within the Southwest North American Region (SWNAR) of the United States and shared physical border with México has forged an extensive history of complicated interconnectedness for the Latino community residing in this borderland (Vélez-Ibáñez, 2017). This dissertation examines Arizona’s anti-immigration legislation, focusing on the years between 2000 and 2018, and how, or if, this legislation affected the political participation of Latinos in the state. This research argues that Latinos, both citizen and undocumented, have galvanized across citizenship lines in response to the anti-immigration legislation aimed at criminalizing Latinos, marginalizing their families, and hindering their access to education, public services, and employment opportunities (Philbin & Ayón, 2016). Using theoretical foundations of political mobilization, this work explores the use of anti-immigration legislation as a mobilizing factor for Latino political participation. Further, the findings suggest that the traditional definition of political participation is not sufficient for the wide-ranging activities of the Latino community. This work, therefore, re-contextualizes the term political participation and establishes Latino political participation by incorporating the concept of “funds of knowledge” to account for Latino political practices that have previously been ignored by the traditional definition. For this study, a series of observations of trends in Latino voting and registration and a descriptive historical analysis of Latino political practices led to the creation of questions for the qualitative interview process. Interviews were conducted with fifteen key Latino informants, and their testimonios provide an explanation for the noted trends in Latino political participation during the election years, highlight the political mobilization that incorporated both the undocumented Latinos and Latino citizens, and provide clarification for a recontextualization of Latino political participation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Transborder Studies 2020

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of the current extreme right parties and the anti- immigration movements. The thesis is diveded into two parts. The first one desribes important theoretical terms dealing with the fundamental pillars of the extreme right and anti-Islamist policy, which accompanies the monothematic anti-immigration movements. The second one is devoted to specific subjects of extreme right and anti-immigration scene in Czech Republic. Namely the Narodni demokracie, Delnicka strana socialni spravedlnosti, Czech Defence League, Islam v CR nechceme with all its successors and Usvit narodni koalice. The comparison of individual case studies based on the theoretical knowledge helps to answer the question wether or not the anti-immigration movements with its programs and activities belongs to extreme right. Additional information is provided through an analysis of mutual withdrawals and a list of possible reasons for non-co-operation. Keywords Anti-immigration movement, extreme right, Martin Konvicka, Tomio Okamura, Národní demokracie, Islám v ČR nechceme, Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti, Úsvit národní koalice

After the attack on Ukraine in 2022, the European Union member states have experienced a major migration wave. This gave the EU opportunity to activate the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time, a framework that was created due to the effects of the Yugoslavian civil war in 2001 and which gives refugees certain rights upon arrival in any EU member state. This is also valid in Sweden. However, Sweden has recently been subject to a change in government which pursues a more restrictive migration policy, and an increasingly harsh and discriminatory rhetoric against migrants. Despite this, Ukrainian migrants seem to be exempt from the negative rhetoric pursued by Swedish political parties. This study aims to review whether and how the Swedish parliament justifies this seemingly preferential treatment. The research adds to the discussion on refugees and migrants in Sweden, particularly to the debate on xenophobia and threat perceptions against migrants, by using the theory of “new racism” and the integrated threat theory. The study applies comparative critical discourse analysis on perceptions of refugees and migrants in general, and towards Ukrainian refugees in particular, as expressed in the Swedish parliament from 2015-2023. The data used were gathered from discussions, debates, and protocols on policy regarding migration and integration in the Swedish parliament. The findings showcase a difference in the discourse around Ukrainian refugees and other, where the discourse about Ukrainians is more positive. This has implications for other refugee and migrant groups in Sweden, and in other EU countries. The discourse conducted by the Swedish parliament can incite violent sentiments in the Swedish population and promote further segregation in society.