ABSTRACT
In many European countries, the increasing success of radical right parties has been credited to the growing politicization of their core issue of immigration. This chapter sheds light on the role of immigration for political conflict in Germany until the electoral breakthrough of Alternative for Germany (AfD). Our chapter shows that the country saw some heated political debates over immigration and integration also before the populist radical right entered the Federal parliament. In the past decades, the salience and polarization of immigration have followed cyclical up-and-downs, often connected to exogenous events such as the Yugoslav Wars in the early 1990s or the 2015 refugee crisis. Throughout this period, mainstream and smaller parties were also keys in politicizing the issue. Despite the lack of an established radical right party until the mid-2010s, Germany was well within the European average of immigration politicization. The chapter draws on a multitude of data sources on public opinion as well as parties’ issue attention and positions toward immigration.
