Anti-Migrant Politics: Tragedy and Change in a Small English Town

In the aftermath of far-right electoral successes debate rages amongst scholars and non-scholars to find explanations with many connecting electoral success to popular opposition to immigration. As noted by Matt Golder (2016), the successes of Europe’s far-right parties has shown substantial subnational variation with support for these parties concentrated into particular areas or regions of their respective countries, but this subnational variation has received comparatively little attention. My paper attempts to contribute to this growing scholarship of far-right support by examining anti-migrant politics in a subnational context. Using content analysis, this paper examines primary evidence gathered from the Dover Express, a local newspaper in the town of Dover, in order to analyze local anti-migrant politics as well as the changes in these politics between the periods of 1996 to 2004. This examination of local public dialogue and the framing surrounding immigration reveals the nature of the anti-immigrant sentiment that many believe fed the rise of far right parties. I argue that while early anti-migrant politics in Dover were hostile, the tragedy of the 2000 Dover incident in which 58 migrants were found dead in the back of a truck represented a turning point towards a less hostile and confrontational politics. However, this ‘softening’ in public dialogue did not exert much influence on citizens’ policy preferences regarding immigration. By way of this argument, this paper aims to shed light on anti-migrant sentiment to better understand how such politics may have created fertile soil for the growth of far right parties.