MAINSTREAMING THE FARRIGHT: The Use of Anti-Migrant Frames in Sweden and France

Abstract

This thesis explores the mainstreaming of far-right anti-migrant frames in Sweden and France. Using a qualitative approach combining frame theory and supplementary data from publicly available sources, the thesis documents when three anti-migrant frames transferred from the political manifestos of far-right to center and center-right political parties across three elections. The thesis also examines how differences in discursive opportunities, specifically the visibility of the increase in migration, and political context, specifically voter competition and political system type, impacted the transfer of frames. The empirical material includes party manifestos published by center, center-right, and far-right parties in Sweden and France between 2007-2018 and supplementary data between the 2002-2019, including immigration statistics, vote margins, and party GAL-TAN scores. The thesis concludes that both center and center-right parties in Sweden and France incorporated far-right frames. In Sweden, far-right frames did not appear in mainstream manifestos in 2010 or 2014, but transferred by 2018. In France, far-right frames appeared in the manifestos of the centerright in 2007 and 2012, but less so by 2017. In both countries, political competition by far-right parties, and high migration rates that afforded the issue of migration visibility, encouraged the transfer of far-right frames. However, France’s semi-presidential political system drove both the far and center-right parties to support the preferences of the median voter as the far-right gained power, decreasing the salience and transfer of far-right frames. By contrast, in Sweden, political competition by the far-right not only encouraged the transfer of frames by 2018, but drove the right and center-right to move away from the median voter.