Description:

Abstract: There is ample evidence showing that demographic changes due to immigration can electorally benefit far-right parties. Demand-side explanations have shown how economic and cultural grievances make voters more likely to prefer candidates who promise to curtail immigration. Yet little research has explored how demographic changes can make native residents more nationalistic, which can also make far-right parties more attractive to voters. Using rich administrative data and a three-wave panel survey from Chile, I show that people living in municipalities that were more exposed to immigration become prouder of being Chilean and more likely to identify with Chile (even before the emergence of a far-right party). These findings illustrate how demographic changes do not just produce grievances; they also affect people’s fundamental political ideas. They also show that new political attitudes are not only elite-driven but can emerge before the configuration of a far-right party in a given country.

Giancarlo Visconti is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University and a Core Faculty in the Advanced Methods Cluster (AMAP). Prof. Visconti studies comparative political behavior and the political economy of developing countries, with a regional focus on Latin America. His research interests include elections, crime, economic shocks, migration, and local politics. His research has been published, or is forthcoming, in the British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Electoral Studies, among others outlet.