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Immigration & Democracy: Neoliberalism in Europe

Fri, September 6, 4:00 to 5:30pm, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, 406

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Bringing together scholars from Europe and North America, the panel explores the migration-democracy nexus in Europe.

Across the continent, the far-right is enjoying steady gains on the back of opposition to immigration, both economic migrants and refugees. In the last two elections, Marine Le Pen has made it to the second presidential ballot in France, her National Rally made unprecedented gains in 2022 legislative elections, and in Germany, a no-go zone for the far right for decades, the Alternative for Germany is polling even with or even ahead of the Social Democrats. The far right, in short, is exploiting immigration to threaten the European Union and democracy itself.

The panel will explore the topic by exploring the relationship between neo-liberalism and opposition to immigration. That is, does neo-liberalism itself undermining democracy by generating demands for cheap, exploitable, and disenfranchised migrant labor that are politically impossible to satisfy, leading to an ever-expanding pool of informal migrants excluded from the demos? Does the 'economizing' of all forms of migration - not merely economic migrants in the classic sense, but also family migrants and refugees - relativize and weaken individual rights?

The panel will also look at how migrants and other civil society actors are offering resistance to both this framing and to the far-right demonization of immigrants. The key to this resistance is their access to citizenship, which is basic to voting and holding office.

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