Citizens with a Migration Background Involved in a Radical-Right Wing Party Restricting Immigration
Abstract
The populist radical right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP / UDC) has been largely known for its xenophobic discourses and its political agenda restricting immigration through popular initiatives such as the vote against minarets (2009), the deportation of “criminal foreigners” (2010) and the initiative against “mass immigration” (2014). This paper shows how SVP/UDC activists, who themselves or whose parents had migrated to Switzerland, understand their political engagement and contribution. This sheds light on their desire to become part of a “deserving minority” and on their use of boundary-making strategies to demarcate their positions from others they label as “undeserving migrants”. Their political engagement needs to be understood as part of a broader quest for belonging to the Swiss national community. By showing that migration-related experiences inform the political involvement of activists at the Swiss People’s Party, this paper questions widely spread assumptions on contradictory or counterintuitive political commitments.
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Bader, Dina, and Alexandra Feddersen. 2021. “Ideological Boundary-making: Representing Migrants in an Anti-immigration Party.” Swiss Journal of Sociology 47 (1): 137–156. https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2021-0011.
Barth, Fredrik (ed.).1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Long Grove: Waveland Press.
Cretton, Viviane. 2018. “Performing Whiteness: Racism, Skin Colour, and Identity in Western Switzerland.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41 (5): 842–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1312006.
D’Amato, Gianni, and Damir Skenderovic. 2009. “From Outsider to Playmakers: Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties and Swiss Migration Policy.” In Right-wing Extremism in Switzerland, edited by Marcel Alexander Niggli, 78–91. Baden-Baden: Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845216621-78.
Dahinden, Janine. 2016. “A Plea for the ‘De-migranticization’ of Research on Migration and Integration.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 39: 2207–2225. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1124129.
Dillard, Angela. 2001. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Now? Multicultural Conservatism in America. New York: NYU Press.
Elias, Norbert, and John Scotson. 1965. The Established and the Outsiders: A Sociological Enquiry into Community Problems. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446222126.
Esquivel, Ruthanna. 2010. “Explaining the Paradox of Conservative Latinos and their Affiliation with the Democratic party”. MA diss., California State University, Sacramento.
Federal Statistical Office (FSO). 2019. Available at: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/
statistiques/politique/elections/conseil-national/force-partis.html. Accessed March 24, 2021.
Fibbi, Rosita, Didier Ruedin, Robin Stünzi, and Eva Zschirnt. 2022. “Hiring Discrimination on the Basis of Skin Colour? A Correspondence Test in Switzerland.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 48 (7): 1515–1535. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1999795.
Fibbi, Rosita, Bülent Kaya, and Etienne Piguet. 2003. Le passeport ou le diplôme ? Etude des discriminations à l’embauche des jeunes issus de la migration. Neuchâtel : Forum suisse pour l’étude des
migrations – Rapport de Recherche 31.
Gottraux, Philippe, and Cécile Péchu. 2011. Militants de l’UDC : la diversité sociale et politique des engagés. Lausanne : Ed. Antipodes.
Grant, Blight. 2017. “Tokenism.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior, edited by Fathali Moghaddam, 834–837. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Hickel, Flavio, Rudy Alamillo, Kassra Oskooii, and Loren Collingwood. 2020. “The Role of Identity Prioritization: Why some Latinx Support Restrictionist Immigration Policies and Candidates.” Public Opinion Quarterly 84 (4): 860–891. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfaa048.
Holmes, Stephen. 2021. “The Antiliberal Idea.” In Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, edited by András Sajó, Renáta Uitz, and Stephen Holmes, 3–15. London: Routledge.
Jenkins, Richard. 2000. “Categorization: Identity, Social Process and Epistemology.” Current Sociology 48 (3): 7–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392100048003003.
Killian, Caitlin, and Cathryn Johnson. 2006. “‘I’m not an Immigrant!’: Resistance, Redefinition, and the Role of Resources in Identity Work.” Social Psychology Quarterly 69 (1): 60–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250606900105.
Kolbe, Melanie, and Markus Crepaz. 2016. “The Power of Citizenship: How Immigrants Incorporation Affects Attitudes towards Social Benefits.” Comparative Politics 49 (1): 105–123. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041516819582937.
Krastev, Ivan, and Stephen Holmes. 2018. “Explaining Eastern Europe: Imitation and its Discontents.” Journal of Democracy 29 (3): 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2018.0049.
Lamont, Michèle, and Christopher Bail. 2005. “Sur les frontières de la reconnaissance” Revue européenne des migrations internationales 21 (2) : 61–90. https://doi.org/10.4000/remi.2489.
Mastrangelo, Simon. 2018. “Revendiquer le droit à émigrer via l’expression du sentiment d’injustice. Le cas des harraga tunisiens.” L’Année du Maghreb 18: 21–35. https://doi.org/10.4000/anneemaghreb.3410.
Mazzarella, William. 2019. “The Anthropology of Populism: Beyond the Liberal Settlement.” Annual Review of Anthropology 48 (1): 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011412.
Mazzoleni, Oscar. 2003. Nationalisme et populisme en Suisse : la radicalisation de la « nouvelle » UDC. Lausanne : Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes.
Micheloud, Stéphanie. 2017. “Les Suisses d’origine étrangère engagés à l’UDC : analyse discursive de l’appartenance aux ‘insiders’.” Ma diss., University of Neuchâtel.
Pfaff-Czarnecka, Joanna. 2011. “From ‘Identity’ to ‘Belonging’ in Social Research: Plurality, Social Boundaries, and the Politics of the Self.” In Etnicidad, ciudadanía y pertenencia, edited by Sarah Albiez,
Nelly Castro, Lara Jüssen, and Eva Youkhana, 197–218. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2020.v16n39p113.
Piguet, Etienne. 2009. L’immigration en Suisse. Lausanne : Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes.
Politi, Emanuele, Marion Chipeaux, Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi, and Christian Staerklé. 2020. “More Royalist than the King? Immigration Policy Attitudes Among Naturalized Citizens.” Political Psychology 41: 607–625.
Portmann, Lea, and Nenad Stojanović. 2019. “Electoral Discrimination Against Immigrant-origin Candidates.” Political Behavior 41 (1): 105–134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-017-9440-6.
Prisock, Louis. 2018. African Americans in Conservative Movements: The Inescapability of Race. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89351-8.
Ruedin, Didier. 2018. “Participation in Local Elections: ‘Why don’t immigrants vote more?’.” Parliamentary Affairs 71 (2): 243–262. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QEMYEB.
Sandoz, Laure. 2019. Mobilities of the Highly Skilled towards Switzerland: The Role of Intermediaries in Defining “Wanted Immigrants”. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21122-6.
Sayad, Abdelmalek. 1999. La double absence. Des illusions de l’émigré aux souffrances de l’immigré. Paris: Seuil.
Shorter, Shavonne. 2010. “Not Sell’s Outs, Uncle Tom’s, or Aunt Jemima’s: African American Republicans and their Reason for Affiliation with the GOP.” MA diss. Purdue University.
Spies, Dennis, Sabrina Mayer, Jonas Elis, and Achim Goerres. 2022. “Why do Immigrants Support an Anti-immigration Party? Russian-Germans and the Alternative for Germany.” West European Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2047544.
Strijbis, Oliver. 2014. “Migration Background and Voting Behavior in Switzerland: A Socio-Psychological Explanation.” Swiss Political Science Review 20 (4): 612–631. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12136.
Strijbis, Oliver. 2017. “Wenn AusländerInnen wählen und abstimmen dürften: Überlegungen anhand von aktuellen Umfragedaten.” https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/145771/.
Strijbis, Oliver, and Javier Polavieja. 2018. “Immigrants Against Immigration: Competition, Identity and Immigrants’ Vote on Free Movement in Switzerland” Electoral Studies 56: 150–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2018.10.001.
Van Veelen, Ruth, Jenny Veldman, Colette Van Laar, and Belle Derks. 2020. “Distancing From a Stigmatized Social Identity: State of the Art and Future Research Agenda on Self-group Distancing.” European Journal of Social Psychology 50: 1089–1107.
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. Ethnic Boundary Making. Institutions, Power, Networks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Published
2024-01-03
How to Cite
Mastrangelo, Simon, and Leonie Mugglin. 2024. “Citizens With a Migration Background Involved in a Radical-Right Wing Party Restricting Immigration”. Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology 29 (1). https://doi.org/10.36950/sjsca.2023.29.8872.
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