Immigrant threat, perception of unsafety, and political articulation of immigration and multiculturalism in European countries
| Published date | 01 November 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708241248256 |
| Author | Laisa F. Abreu Rivera,Sylwia J. Piatkowska |
| Date | 01 November 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Immigrant threat, perception
of unsafety, and political
articulation of immigration
and multiculturalism in
European countries
Laisa F. Abreu Rivera
Florida State University, USA
Sylwia J. Piatkowska
Florida State University, USA
Abstract
A large body of work has examined the relationship between population composition and risk of
victimization. Past research has also suggested that the nature of political rhetoric may have pro-
found impacts on perceived threat, fear of crime, and moral panic. This study constitutes the first
attempt to examine the relationships between the negative political articulation of both immigra-
tion and multiculturalism by extreme right-wing parties and the perception of unsafety risk in
European countries. We employ data from the 2018 European Social Survey (ESS), which we
merge with data from the Manifesto Project Dataset, a comparative dataset on political statements.
The results reveal that individuals who reside in countries with higher levels of negative political
articulation of immigration and multiculturalism express greater perceived unsafety. The results
also show that higher levels of perceived immigrant threat amplify the relationship between nega-
tive political articulation of immigration and perceived unsafety. Finally, news exposure amplifies
the effect of the negative political articulation of immigration on the perception of unsafety
when perceived immigrant threat is higher. Our findings underscore the importance of the polit-
ical context and the potential of political elites to shape public perceptions, including the percep-
tion of unsafety.
Corresponding author:
Sylwia J. Piatkowska, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 112 South Copeland
Street, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA.
Email: spiatkowska@fsu.edu
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2024, Vol. 21(6) 830–858
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14773708241248256
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Keywords
Europe, immigrant threat, perception of unsafety, political articulation
Introduction
Scholars have long theorized that perceptions of victimization risk fluctuate with the demo-
graphic characteristics of places (Liska et al., 1982; Visser et al., 2013). The major argument
has been that personal feelings of unsafety are more pronounced in areas where the actual or
perceived minority presence is higher because minority group members pose a criminal threat
(Blalock, 1967; Semyonov et al., 2012). More recently, scholars have emphasized an import-
ant role of stereotypes and political and public framing, suggesting that the media and poli-
ticians often engage in the exploitation of the racial and ethnic typification of crime to garner
electoral support from the majority group (Pickett et al., 2012). The presence of the minority
population reduces perceptions of safety because minorities are often framed by politicians
and the public as prone to criminality and violence (Chong and Druckman, 2007).
Although not entirely consistent, previous research has provided support for these arguments
indicating that the actual or perceived size of the minority population exerts significant
impacts on risk perception (Chiricos et al., 1997; Liska et al., 1982; Semyonov et al., 2012).
Despite a scholarly focus on exploringthe link between populationcomposition and risk
perception, relatively little empirical attention has been given to the impact of political
context. This omission is notable because an increased number of studies on political
parties and their rhetoric have begun to show that, in general, political elites have the cap-
ability, through public discourse, to potentially influence the public to be in line with their
views (Hopkins,2010; Van der Brug and Fennema, 2003). In turn, political elites have the
power to influence whether a particular “problem”(i.e., immigration) poses a threat to
certain voters. Influential political actors, r esearchers argue, mold the perceptions of immi-
grants and other outgroups as criminal threats through their activities and the statements
they make. Accordingly, this framing of immigrants as criminals through political rhetoric
may have profoundimpacts on feelings of unsafety. Such political discourse can generatea
hostile environment toward newcomers, thus potentially inducing formal and informal
crime control mechanisms (Bohman, 2011; Ivarsflaten, 2005).
Previous research has demonstrated that the migration crisis of 2015 emphasized the
political discourse surrounding immigration, and this discourse has been particularly
driven by populist and right-wing parties that have risen in the last decade
(Green-Pedersen and Otjes, 2019). When a particular group’s immigration is politically
salient, a significant effect on a wide range of anti-immigrant attitudes emerges based on
anti-immigrant rhetoric. Specifically, anti-immigrant and nationalist political rhetoric was
found to be associated with negative attitudes toward immigrants (Bohman, 2011), heigh-
tened expressions of civic and national identity within public opinion (Helbling et al.,
2016), and greater support for restrictive immigration legislation and asylum policies
(Ivarsflaten, 2005). To date, however, the extent to which this political rhetoric is asso-
ciated with perceived unsafety remains to be examined.
Against this backdrop, the present study aims to extend previous literature in several
important ways. First, given the previous research’s implications on the adverse influ-
ences of political rhetoric (Bohman, 2011; Ivarsflaten, 2005), we examine the relationship
Abreu Rivera and Piatkowska 831
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