Compaso

Abstract: Mainstream parties in Europe (especially the Western part of Europe that is currently dealing with an increased migration flux in comparison with the rest of the European countries) seem to have intensified their concern with immigration in the last two decades (even more so since the 2008 financial crisis). Right-wing parties are the most radical in their anti-immigration discourse, and public displays of such argumentations reflect not only shifts in the public’s political sympathies post-crisis, but may also reflect shifts in the (still) dominant paradigm of multiculturalism. This paper analyses some examples from various right-wing discourses (Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, to name a few) and from political discourses on the nature and future of multiculturalism in order to understand the way political actors rationalize such positions. This analysis can help further understand not only how the rhetorics of political justifications and rationalizations work, but also to sketch some plausible future dynamics of migration in European context (the main target of the paper being the discourses towards Eastern-European immigrants) and the possible shifts in multiculturalism as well.

Keywords: Immigrant, right-wing discourse, rationalization, multiculturalism, transient other, Eastern European immigrants