MODES OF IMMIGRATION POLITICS IN LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC-STATES

The politics of immigration in liberal democracies exhibits strong sim ilarities that are, contrary to the scholarly consensus, broadly expan sionist and inclusive. Nevertheless, three groups of states display di stinct modes of immigration politics. Divergent immigration histories mold popular attitudes toward migration and ethnic heterogeneity and a ffect the institutionalization of migration policy and politics. The E nglish-speaking settler societies (the United States, Canada, and Aust ralia) have histories of periodically open immigration, machineries of immigration planning and regulation, and densely organized webs of in terest groups contesting policies. Their institutionalized politics fa vors expansionary policies and is relatively immune to sharp swings in direction. Many European states (France, Britain, Germany, Switzerlan d, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium) experienced mass migration on ly after World War II and in a form that introduced significant non-Eu ropean minorities. Their immigration politics is shaped by what most s ee as the unfortunate consequences of those episodes and are partially institutionalized and highly volatile and conflictual. European state s until recently sending countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece ) deal with migration pressures for the first time in their modern his tories, under crisis conditions, and in the context of intensifying co ordination of policies within the European Union. We should expect the normalization of immigration politics in both sets of European states . Although they are unlikely to appropriate the policies of the Englis h-speaking democracies, which should remain unique in their openness t o mass immigration, their approach to immigration will, nevertheless, take the liberal democratic form.