Comparative Analysis

When explaining for one country why things developed the way they did, it is of course insufficient to simply describe what happened. For this reason, the final work package is concerned with the testing of a number of hypotheses. These hypotheses revolve around the central research question of why the issue of immigration became politicized (or not) in the way it did in each of the countries?

The new data collected in the other work packages will allow the SOM project to address various hypothesis on politicizing, or depoliticizing, the issue of immigration. The comparative nature of the SOM project is essential for assessing why and how the issue of immigration becomes politicized.