Immigration and populist political strategies: Switzerland as a metaphor

Abstract

Combining a media analysis of more than two decades of claims about immigration and integration with historical analysis, we regard the politicisation of immigration as a case of populism. Focusing on Switzerland and the Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC), we argue that their positions in the media are counterbalanced by government actors, party politics, and civil society. Both positive and negative claims on immigration are common in the media. The SVP/UDC has used referendums and popular initiatives to politicise immigration since the late 1980s. While there is no obvious influence on immigration policy, since the 2000s, the party has occasionally found majorities for highly symbolic changes. We argue that these successes are best understood as a cleavage between cosmopolitanism and communitarianism, which generally favours populist organisations. We conclude that anti-immigrant populism can be part of a winning strategy, but is not necessarily new.

Keywords: Switzerland; Media; Referendum; Policy; Cosmopolitanism; Civil Society