Dimension-specific party and public opinion responsiveness in the EU immigration acquis

How are national party positions and national public opinion balanced when voting on the multi-dimensional immigration policies of the EU, which encompass both immigration and EU integration dimensions? The study applies the Wordscores algorithm on 1990–2018 EU immigration policies’ texts and examines the voting behaviour of national parties in the European Parliament (EP). It incorporates roll-call votes, CHES, and Eurobarometer data covering over 350 parties to test the influence of (a) parties’ programmatic positions; (b) national public opinion on parties’ level of support for EU immigration dossiers’ contents. The study provides the first comprehensive evidence that the EU immigration acquis has become increasingly restrictive and that restrictive and liberal provisions frequently co‑occur with, respectively, pro‑EU integration and pro‑sovereignty provisions. Parties adhere more closely to party positions on the immigration dimension but are more responsive to short-term changes in public opinion on the EU integration dimension instead.