October 31, 2024
In this New York Times article on anti-immigrant violence in the UK, research by Center for Right-Wing Studies faculty affiliate Maureen Eger is used to explain why anti-immigrant violence might bolster the far right in the future. Maureen Eger and Susan Olzak's academic study from 2022 found that anti-immigrant violence in Germany lifted support for far-right parties among voters who already held anti-immigrant views. Voters with neutral views on immigration also shifted their support to the far-right. Anti-immigrant violence did not have the same effect on voters who had been pro-immigration before the attacks. Eger and Olzak suggest this happened because anti-immigrant attacks made immigration more salient to voters.