Threat and Immigration Attitudes in Liberal Democracies: The Role of Framing in Structuring Public Opinion

The implications of migrants, foreign networks, and ethnic minorities in terrorist attacks across the United States and Europe has reinforced a link between security and migration, and has challenged the normative framework of ‘embedded liberalism’ of the post-WWII international order (Hollifi eld, 1992). The ‘securitization of migration’ discourse has invoked popular arguments that liberal democratic governments would be compelled to close their doors to a globalized world full of ‘people on the move’ (Zolberg, 2001). Implicit in these claims are two assumptions: 1) that public opinion matters to immigration policy-makers; and 2) that threat has some kind of eff ect on policy outcomes.