2026/01/26 by Leonardo Carella, Francesco Raffaelli · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #European Social Survey #German #Immigration #Manifesto #Migration, Refugees, and Integration #Political socialization #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Salience (neuroscience) #Survey data collection
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1475676525100534
published in European Journal of Political Research 65(3), 790-814 (Wiley)
openalex created_date 2026/01/26 · openalex publication_date 2026/01/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract This paper considers how issue salience environments affect long-term patterns of political choice via processes of political socialization. Drawing on the well-known ‘impressionable years’ hypothesis, we theorize that voters who grew up in high-immigration salience contexts subsequently exhibit higher levels of voter-party agreement on immigration (issue congruence). We find support for this hypothesis from two studies, which leverage cross-sectional variation within cohorts in exposure to immigration salience in voters’ formative years. The first employs congruence data from a survey of 10 European countries, linked to historical salience data from the Comparative Manifesto Project. The second is a within-country study, measuring salience and congruence from two long-running German public opinion survey series. The analysis suggests that growing up at times when immigration is high on the political agenda can have long-term consequences for the relationship between voters’ preferences on that issue and their political choices, shedding light on the mechanism behind ‘generational realignment’.