Mobilising on Migration? Linkages of Migration and European Integration in Four Irish EU Referendums

• Published date: 01 June 2025
• Author: Kristine Graneng
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70012
• Section: Research Article

Contemporary European Politics

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Mobilising on Migration? Linkages of Migration and

European Integration in Four Irish EU Referendums

Kristine Graneng

Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Correspondence: Kristine Graneng (k.graneng@fu-berlin.de)

Received: 30 September 2024 | Revised: 19 March 2025 | Accepted: 25 April 2025

Keywords: discursive issue‐linkages | discursive opportunity structures| EU referendums | framing | Ireland | migration

ABSTRACT

In a Europe where contestation over migration and European integration has become increasingly connected, Ireland seems to

be an outlier. Whereas European integration has been a politicised issue in Ireland, not least in the context of four consecutive

referendums on EU treaties in the early 2000s, politicisation of immigration has traditionally been low in Ireland. But while

previous studies suggest that this has also been the case during EU referendums, the debates on the Treaty of Nice seem to be an

exception. Ireland's status as an outlier in Western Europe and the variation across referendums makes the Irish referendums

an ideal case for exploring the relationship between politicisation of migration and European integration. This article examines

and explains to what extent and how migration has been discursively linked to European integration in the four Irish EU

referendums in the period 2001–2009. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of political claims in Irish newspapers, I

argue that pre‐existing national discourses on migration and European integration, which have been predominantly positive in

Ireland, have generally hindered the mobilisation of anti‐immigration sentiments against the EU. The Nice II referendum is an

exception, highlighting how not even Ireland is immune to such politicisation. My analysis shows how domestic radical right

actors played an important part in mobilising such linkages, but also how the responses of other actors contributed to making

migration a more salient issue. The article offers novel empirical insights into the politicisation of migration in Ireland, and also

advances our general understanding of the dynamics behind the politicisation of migration in relation to European integration.

1 | Introduction

Since the beginning of the 2000s, immigration has become a

central issue to the politicisation of European integration. The

most evident example of this is how anti‐immigration senti-

ments have been mobilised directly in opposition to European

integration in several important referendums: When the Con-

stitutional Treaty was rejected in France and the Netherlands in

2005, immigration was raised as an issue in the debates

(Atikcan 2018) and scholars have pointed to the role of the issue

for explaining the rejection (Hainsworth 2006; Lubbers 2008).

Eleven years later, concerns over migration from both inside

and outside the EU played a significant role in the British

debates over its membership of the EU (Moore and

Ramsay 2017) and in driving the Leave vote in the Brexit ref-

erendum (Hobolt 2016). These are clear examples of how

migration, particularly negative conceptions of immigration, is

linked to the contestation of European integration.

Ireland, however, does not fit neatly into this story of an

increasingly important transnational cleavage within which

migration and European integration are central issues (e.g.

Hooghe and Marks 2018). There has been considerable EU

politicisation in Ireland, as questions related to European

integration have repeatedly been put to national referendums.

Meanwhile, Ireland is an outlier with regard to politicisation

of immigration: Immigration has become increasingly politi-

cised across Western European countries since the 1990s

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1of17Contemporary European Politics, 2025; 3:e70012

https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70012

(Grande et al. 2019). In this same period, Ireland has experi-

enced a dramatic increase in immigration (Krings et al. 2013,

42–43), and public opinion on immigration has been relatively

similar to other Western European countries (Messina 2009).

However, despite both international and domestic factors being

conducive to the politicisation of migration, on its own and in

connection to European integration, immigration was neither

particularly salient nor polarised in Irish politics at the begin-

ning of this century (Cunningham 2015).

Scholars have however suggested that there have been moments

of increased politicisation of immigration in Ireland and that

this is linked to questions of European integration:

Cunningham (2015) has identified the period around the ref-

erendums on the Treaty of Nice (2001‐2002) as a peak in the

politicisation of immigration, particularly driven by an increase

in salience (p. 85). He in part links this directly to debates about

the Treaty of Nice (p. 94). Similarly, scholars have argued that

immigration became a central issue in the Nice II campaign

(Hayward 2003; Tonra 2006). There are less indications that it

was particularly relevant in the Lisbon campaigns, at least to

voters (Sinnott and Elkink 2010), although there were discus-

sions in the media about whether it had been an issue after the

first Lisbon referendum (e.g., McGee 2008).

Ireland as an outlierin the larger narrative on the nexus between

migration and European integration and the variation in the

salience of migration across the referendums makes the Irish

referendums an idealcase for exploring the relationship between

politicisation of migration and Europeanintegration. This article

examines and explains to what extent and how migration and

European integration were connected and decoupled in the four

Irish referendums in this period. The study employs the novel

concept of discursive issue‐linkages in a quantitative and quali-

tative analysis of political claims in Irish newspapers during

these referendumcampaigns: the Treaty of Nice in 2001and 2002

and the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008 and 2009.

The article makes an important empirical contribution to the

literature on the politicisation of migration in Ireland. Through

a systematic mapping of the debates, I find that in three of the

four referendums, the salience of migration was low. The ways

in which migration was linked to the EU in these rather mar-

ginal debates were relatively positive on both migration and

European integration. The second Nice referendum, however,

saw a spike in the salience of migration, which was accompa-

nied by a clear increase in anti‐immigration and more Euro-

sceptic positions, bringing the Irish debates closer to broader

patterns in Western Europe, showing how not even Ireland is

immune to such politicisation.

These four in‐depth case studies of Irish referendums also

provide important theoretical insights into what conditions

discursive issue‐linkages of migration in relation to European

integration. First, I argue that discursive opportunity structures

(Koopmans and Olzak 2004) play an important role in con-

ditioning linkages. The study shows how historical discourses

on migration and European integration, respectively, which

have been predominantly positive in Ireland, are reflected in the

way in which the issues have been linked across these ref-

erendums. I argue that this has made it difficult for anti‐

immigration Eurosceptic linkages to resonate in the media.

Moreover, I also show how actors offering more critical per-

spective have done so in a way that to some extent aligns with

pre‐existing discourses.

Second, the study brings further evidence to the mechanisms

facilitating politicisation. Populist radical right parties are cen-

tral to mobilising both anti‐immigration and Eurosceptic sen-

timents (e.g., Arzheimer 2018). One main explanation for the

low politicisation of immigration in Ireland has been the lack of

an established radical right party (Messina 2009). I show how

the mobilisation of domestic radical right groups play an

important part in making migration salient in relation to Eur-

opean integration in the Nice II referendum. This provides

further evidence to the claim that referendums as an electoral

context might facilitate participation of actors outside the gov-

ernment (Hutter 2025), thereby also offering a venue for new

narratives. The puzzling is that we only saw this play out in the

2002 referendum. I argue that part of the explanation to this, is

how the campaign groups made use of a particular event to

mobilise on migration: The decision of the Irish government not

to adopt a transitional arrangement on free movement with the

2004 enlargement.

Third, the study shows how not only such mobilisation efforts,

but also the responses of other actors matter. The increase in

salience in the Nice II referendum was reinforced by responses

from other actors, particularly actors from the government, who

contested the claims set forth by those expressing concern over

the implications of the enlargement for immigration to Ireland.

In contrast, similar attempts at mobilising migration during the

Lisbon II campaign were not successful in bringing the issue

high on the agenda. The article argues that this can partly be

ascribed to these attempts being made predominantly by a

foreign actor, but also to them being met with different

responses than in the Nice II campaign. This brings further

evidence to how also mainstream centre‐right politicians con-

tribute to politicising immigration as an issue (Hutter and

Kriesi 2022; Abou‐Chadi and Krause 2020).

The article is structured as follows. The next section discusses

the role of framing in EU referendums and introduces discur-

sive issue‐linkages as a concept. Subsequently, I discuss what

conditions such issue‐linkages by drawing on the politicisation

literature and set out expectations for the case of the Irish ref-

erendums. The third section presents the method and data of

the study. Before turning to the analysis, I give a brief account

of the four referendums. In the first empirical section, I present

the findings on the salience of the linkage. The sixth section

presents and discusses the findings on how such claims were

made and contested across the referendums through a mix of

quantitative and qualitative findings. The article concludes with

summing up the findings and discussing their implications.

2 | EU Referendums and Discursive

Issue‐Linkages as a Tool for Mobilisation

The last four decades have seen many referendums on various

issues related to the EU, many of which have had great con-

sequences for the process of European integration. Studies have

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