Eddy Yeung who completed his MPhil last year, researched and wrote his dissertation asking ‘Does immigration boost public Euroscepticism in European Union member states?’
He analysed immigration data and Eurobarometer survey data over the period 2009–2017. The analysis shows no evidence that individual levels of Euroscepticism increase with actual levels of immigration.
“I’m thrilled that the paper has been published in European Union Politics. It has come a long way since I first developed the dissertation project at Cambridge,” says Mr Yeung. “The whole publication process, from submitting the manuscript for review, revising it to address reviewers’ concerns, and writing up a response memo, was quite challenging as it was completely new to me. But this also made me grow a lot as a scholar, and I’m glad that it all started at Cambridge.”
This result suggests that a strong link between anti-immigration and Eurosceptic attitudes does not necessarily translate into a strong link between immigration levels and public Euroscepticism. Public Euroscepticism can still be low even if immigration levels are high.
Dr Toke Aidt from the Faculty of Economics, who supervised his dissertation, says, “this is a fantastic achievement, and the Faculty would like to congratulate Eddy on this publication in a major international journal. Well done Eddy!” he adds.
Mr Yeung is currently pursuing a PhD in political science at Emory University. He says, “I hope to become a political scientist teaching and researching public opinion and political economy, not only in advanced democracies but also in non-democratic contexts.”
The full paper is available athttps://doi.org/10.1177/14651165211030428
