Political Inclusion in an Era of Radicalization (POLINERA)

While the success of the populist radical right has been extensively documented in Europe and also the Nordic-Baltic region, we have little knowledge about how this is affecting the local immigrant and immigrant-origin populations.

This research gap hinders from understanding how the mainstreaming of the radical right is affecting the political inclusion of the very groups that anti-immigrant discourse concerns and what kind of challenges this poses to societal inclusion and whether this can produce new inequalities among different migrant groups. Does the increasing salience of far right tropes push voters of migrant origin towards the incorporation of liberal democratic values or rather, amplify the influence of the authoritarian, nativist and/or populist frames dominant in their countries of origin? And will it witness political mobilization among this group to protect their interest or rather, alienates them even further?

The POLINERA project aims to understand how the mainstreaming of the populist radical right affects the political inclusion of immigrant and immigrant origin populations, with particular focus on their political behavior and socio-political attitudes. By conducting ethnographic research in immigrant dominated neighborhoods in Copenhagen, Malm枚 and Tallinn, the project will document the manifestations of the (de)mobilizing consequences the success of the far right has, and also how different groups of residents react to pro- or anti-populist radical right mobilization. By analyzing post-election survey and registry data in Norway and Estonia, the project allows to make broader scientific generalizations on the effects on the success of the populist radical right on the turnout and attitudes of immigrant or immigrant-origin groups.

This research is particularly important in the Nordic-Baltic region, which is home to a notably high share of foreign-born residents and ranks at the top of global liberal democracy ratings, but has also witnessed a notable rise and mainstreaming of the populist radical right.

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Project Team

Mari-Liis Jakobson

Mari-Liis Jakobson is an Associate Professor of Political Sociology at Tallinn University (Estonia), and the Project Leader of POLINERA. Her research interests include migrant political participation, populist radical right politics and political communication. She is also the Principal Investigator of the project 鈥淏reaking Into the Mainstream While Remaining Radical: Sidestreaming Strategies on the Populist Radical Right鈥 funded by the Estonian Research Council and head of the TLU Political Science MA program. 

Johannes Bergh

Johannes Bergh is Research Director for Politics, democracy and civil society, and the head of the Norwegian National Election Studies (NNES) program at the Institute for Social Research (Norway), and serves as the Nordic Co-Director and PI for the Norwegian team in the POLINERA project. His research interests include political participation, experimental designs, voting, political behavior among minorities, electoral systems and democratic innovations.

Garbi Schmidt

Garbi Schmidt is Professor of Cultural Encounters and a member of the cross-departmental research group on migration at Roskilde University (Denmark). She is the PI for the Danish team in the POLINERA project and leads the working package on ethnographic research. Her research interests include migration on Danish cities and neighborhoods; transnational mobilities, ghettorization, and formulations of Islam in both Europe and North America.

Dag Arne Christensen

Dag Arne Christensen is Research Professor at NORCE (Norway) and leads the working package on the analysis of registry data in POLINERA. His research interests relate to political behavior, including immigrant voter turnout, the impact of convenience voting, and the role of volunteering in society. He is also the PI of a Norwegian Research Council funded project on immigrant inclusion in Norway.

Sebasti谩n Umpierrez de Reguero

Sebasti谩n Umpierrez de Reguero is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tallinn University (Estonia) and leads the working package on the post-election survey in POLINERA. His research interests relate to comparative politics, migration and transnationalism. He is also the co-Convenor of the Standing Group of Migration, Citizenship and Political Participation at IMISCOE and co-Chair of the Standing Group of Migration and Ethnicity at ECPR. 

Pille Petersoo

Pille Petersoo is Lecturer in Sociology at Tallinn University and works as a researcher for the POLINERA project. Her research interests relate to ethnosociology and sociology of food. 

Funding information

This project has received funding from Nordforsk and the Estonian Research Council under the funding call for 鈥淩esearch projects under the Nordic-Baltic initiative for migration and integration research鈥, project number 196398.