ABSTRACT
This chapter has two main objectives: (i) to present a justification for both the selection of the UK, France and Italy as most appropriate case studies and the employment of a most similar systems design; (ii) to explore and contextualise the most relevant divergences across key variables in the three cases, such as electoral systems, the selected ERPs' past development and immigration experiences. The chapter considers possible case selection bias and then presents a justification for the employment of a most similar systems research design based on common liberal political systems, EU membership and the bipolar inter-party competition encouraged by the electoral systems in the three cases. As the first section of this chapter demonstrates, these last three characteristics present similar constraints on the impact of ERPs on immigration policy. Still, there are important variations found between the selected cases that must be contextualised before proceeding and are explored in further depth throughout the remaining chapter.
