Abstract

My thesis examines the complex relationship between immigration and far-right electoral support. In particular, I explore how different groups of immigrants may influence the vote of the far-right party, Front National, in France. A deeper understanding of how the presence of immigrants and different groups of immigrants in a country influences the vote for the far-right party helps explain the growth of these parties. I expect that there is a positive relationship between the presence of Muslim immigrants and the vote for far-right parties, but different groups of Muslim immigrants will have positive and different effects on the vote share of far-right parties. The argument is that socioeconomic, political, organizational, and language-barrier differences among different groups may be linked to public perceptions regarding the level of their integration in the host society; the lower the perceived level of integration the more effective the rhetoric of far right parties that portray Muslim immigrants as a cultural and economic threat; and thus the higher the vote share for these parties. The main dependent variable is the vote share for Marine le Pen's National Front during the 2017 Presidential Election in France. My analysis takes place at the department level which allows me to increase the number of observations in my analysis, account for the variation across departments, and control for a number of variables at the national level. My main independent variable is percent of immigrants in each department: To create a base line, first I compare the effect of Muslim immigrants to that of European immigrants. Next, I expect positive but varying effects for different immigrant groups, from North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria) and Turkey. I use OLS to estimate two models that include relevant control variables; the estimation results support my expectations.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2021

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Kinsey, Barbara

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

School of Politics, Security and International Affairs

Degree Program

Political Science

Identifier

CFE0009286; DP0026890

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0026890

Language

English

Release Date

June 2025

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Campus-only Access)

Download

Restricted to the UCF community until June 2025; it will then be open access.

Share

COinS