While many Europeans continue to consider migration as a priority concern, the economy and rising geopolitical tensions now outrank it in salience. To stop the far right from using it as a Trojan horse, Europe’s mainstream democratic and liberal parties need a new strategy: seize this moment to make migration boring again. To achieve this, they must address voters’ concerns, and, at the same time, they must systematically de-escalate debates and prevent extremists from weaponising migration politically and maintaining it at the centre of political and media attention.
Currently, most pro-EU and liberal forces are failing in this task. In the run-up to the Polish presidential elections, tough rhetoric by the Tusk’s government on European reforms and immigration seems to have backfired, amplifying the issue politically while failing to defeat the opposition on its own turf. Despite reduced migratory pressure, Germany’s centre-right and centre-left coalition government announced further Schengen border checks and restrictions to family reunification. Aimed at containing Alternative für Deutschland, this move sparked domestic and European backlash and drew more public and media focus to migration.
This cocktail of political opportunism and media sensationalism keeps migration in the headlines, fuelling the idea that it is out of control and needs drastic solutions. In this environment, the extreme becomes normalised. Emotion trumps reason, shrinking the space for evidence-based policymaking and sidelining the root of public frustrations - be it a deep crisis of culture and community, urban and rural decay, chronic housing shortages, job insecurity, or widening inequalities. Unless migration is depoliticised and removed from the spotlight, simplistic narratives and reactive policies will continue to gain ground, and immediate concerns and future crises will remain unresolved.
Alberto Horst Neidhardt is a Senior Policy Analyst and Head of the European Migration and Diversity programme.
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