Replication Data for The politicization of immigration in Italy. Who frames the issue, when and how

Italy is one of the most representative ‘new immigration countries’. Between the 1980s and the 1990s, it became a major country of destination for immigrants coming from Asia, Middle East and North Africa. As a result, since the mid-nineties, immigration has gained salience within the Italian political debate. Building on the existing literature on agenda-setting and framing studies, this article studies the evolution of the immigration issue in Italy over the last two decades. It focuses on the framing and, more specifically, the position political actors tend to adopt when debating on immigration. In particular, the main research questions are: to what extent is the framing of immigration associated with the traditional left vs. right spectrum? Do incumbent political parties tend to adopt a different position toward immigration than opposition parties? This article analyses party competition dynamics over the immigration issue in Italy from 1995 to 2011. The author carried out a political-claim analysis of articles from two Italian national daily newspapers. Findings show that immigration is more a positional issue than a valence one. Political actors’ positions towards migration appear to be anchored to the old left vs. right dimension of the political conflict. This demonstrates that parties’ engagement within the political conflict goes beyond electoral campaigns. Finally, being in government seems to play a crucial role in “softening” the way party actors frame immigration, in terms of both the arguments used and the pro- or anti-immigration positions adopted.

意大利是最具代表性的"新移民国家"之一。20世纪80年代至90年代间，该国成为亚洲、中东及北非移民的主要目的地国；自90年代中期起，移民议题在意大利政治辩论中的受重视程度日益凸显。本文依托现有议程设置与框架研究的相关文献，探讨近二十年来意大利移民议题的演变历程，重点聚焦政治行动者在移民议题辩论中倾向采取的框架与立场。具体而言，本文的核心研究问题包括：移民议题的框架构建在多大程度上与传统的左翼-右翼政治光谱相关联？执政党与反对党在移民议题上的立场是否存在显著差异？本文针对1995年至2011年间两份意大利全国性日报的新闻报道开展政治主张分析，以此解析1995至2011年间意大利围绕移民议题展开的政党竞争动态。研究结果显示，移民议题更多属于立场型议题，而非价值型议题；政治行动者针对移民的立场似乎锚定于传统左翼与右翼的政治冲突维度，这表明政党在该议题上的参与远超选举竞选范畴。最后，执政身份似乎会从论证方式与支持/反对移民的立场两方面，对政党行动者构建移民议题框架的倾向起到显著的"软化"作用。