Premium
Public Opinion and the Shaping of Immigration Policy in the European Council of Ministers
Author(s) -
Arregui Javier,
Creighton Mathew J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12745
Subject(s) - immigration , public opinion , immigration policy , salience (neuroscience) , political science , politics , negotiation , context (archaeology) , public policy , public administration , political economy , sociology , law , geography , psychology , archaeology , cognitive psychology
Do EU citizens’ preferences shape EU immigration policy? Using mixed‐methods and a unique data source on policy‐making in the EU Council of Ministers, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the link between public sentiment and immigration policy‐making. Accounting for the economic, political and institutional context, we find that domestic public opinion does not play a central role in the policy positions adopted by Member States nor in the salience Member States attach to immigration issues during the negotiation process. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of how EU immigration policy reacts to public opinion.