Immigration Policy Preferences in Six EU Countries: The Shadow of Intergovernmental Conflicts in Public Opinion

Abstract

Migration politics in the European Union (EU) is highly conflictual. The Dublin framework produces, consolidates and constantly re-enforces divides amongst the governments of EU member states. A prime example is the country-of-first-entry principle, which sets countries at the external EU border against non-border countries. We investigate whether evidence of these conflicts amongst governments also translate into cross-national divides in public opinion. To this end, we separate EU countries along two lines, border versus non-border and host versus non-host countries, and derive policy positions for six member states with respect to four immigration policies. The analysis of original survey data shows that public opinion follows, as expected, the patterns of intergovernmental conflicts. That the public is, like the governments, divided along national lines highlights the dominance of intergovernmental conflict in EU migration politics. As long as this logic prevails, the potential for collective action in EU migration policy-making remains narrow.