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The Unexpected Dynamics of Politicisation of Migration: The Case of the Refugee Crisis in Sicily

ABSTRACT Through analysis of decision-making dynamics on migration in Sicily, this paper shows how party elites define strategies to politicize migration. Conventional explanations of the politicization of migration assume that party elites politicize migration in reaction to increasing flows and issue salience, explicitly ignoring cognitive factors and actors’ reasoning. Conversely, I show that Sicilian party elites’ politicization strategies are not shaped by objective evidence about public attitudes, salience and the effects of migration, but, rather, by actors’ understandings of these objective factors, embedded in deeply rooted narratives and reinforced by the outputs of the decision-making dynamics that they contribute to shape.