ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to connect articulations of xenophobia, racism and populism within discursive uses of ‘illegal immigration’ and ‘dangerous’ ‘Others’ in the context of European-wide processes, which frame certain migrants as the ‘Other’. It seeks to contribute to the re-conceptualisation of populism by focusing on current brands of racial and anti-immigrant politics. The chapter considers the ascent of anti-immigrant politics and explores the continuities and ruptures with the Fascist legacy in racial and anti-immigrant ideologies and politics. Maps of the political and electoral landscape of Europe are often highly problematic: racist, anti-minority, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and Christian fundamentalist political groupings are lumped together as mere ‘nationalist’ forces. The primacy of anti-immigrant politics pertains to the essence of the ‘nation’ of a ‘patriotism’, which is an exclusivist, culturally racist, identitarian and nativist ideology. In many ways, all political groups somehow appeal to the masses for support and articulate overall simplified messages, slogans and discourses in order to mobilise papules support.
