Immigration Fears are Pushing Centrists to the Right in the US and Europe

“It’s a volatile issue, because things happen over which nobody has any control,” U.S.-based Democratic pollster Mark Mellman told POLITICO. “Whether it’s happening in Central America or Mexico or whether some person who’s not here legally commits some heinous crime, these are not things that any president or member of Congress controls in any way shape or form.”...

The right to asylum, enshrined in laws around the world, is largely a consequence of Germany’s Nazi past and the desire to prevent genocide and persecution. The 1951 Refugee Convention was designed to protect Europeans displaced after World War II. A 1967 protocol, signed by 147 countries, expanded protections to apply to all people fleeing conflict and persecution around the world.

But many voters in the U.S. and Europe perceive their asylum systems, however well intended, to be utterly broken, driving uncontrolled migration. In fiscal year 2023, a record number of asylum applications — 478,885 — were filed in the U.S., with many migrants submitting their claims after crossing the southern border. Less than 32,000 applicants were granted asylum, and a huge backlog of cases remain.