INTRODUCTION

The rise of radical right (RR) parties in Western Europe has led to the politicization of issues such as immigration, making them more salient to voters. Do socioeconomic variables such as unemployment and immigration have direct influence on the vote for the radical right? Are mainstream parties losing ground to the radical right in regions with high levels of unemployment and immigrants? Popular perceptions exist of depressed, industrial towns and regions being “swamped” by immigrants and turning to the radical right out of desperation. The radical right has used the issues of immigration and unemployment in an attempt to challenge the mainstream parties and increase its vote share. In this chapter I use aggregate data to focus on the effect of immigration and unemployment on the vote for the radical right. I test the hypothesis that the radical right vote is related to the geographic concentration of immigrants, particularly in regions where unemployment is high. Although there may be a relationship between these variables, I argue that this relationship cannot provide a causal explanation for the differences in the success of radical right parties.

The leader of the French National Front (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, has consistently linked the number of immigrants in France to the number of unemployed. His plans to repatriate immigrants and give French citizens preference in the job market were designed to strike a chord with working-class French voters.