Damaged trust and a changing electorate?: Migration as a contemporary political issue in the UK

Scott Blinder, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, gives a talk for the Immigration and democracy in the UK COMPAS Seminar Series. This talk reviews a wide variety of research findings on how migration functions as a political issue in today’s Britain, and how migration and migrants affect British political systems and outcomes. In the electoral context, I review evidence on how migration affected the 2010 election and how it is likely to affect the 2015 vote – both through impact on majority-group voters and on the increasing population of migrants and ethnic minorities who vote as well. Beyond this, I examine evidence on how migration has changed British politics, through shifts in the party system and erosion of trust in the political system itself.