Is the Immigration Debate Becoming Europeanized?

Is there evidence that the political debate on immigration and integration is becoming Europeanized? We could pick a few anecdotes either way, or we could do it systematically.

In the Support and Opposition to Migration project, we covered newspaper articles on immigration and integration between 1995 and 2009 using a random sample of days for which we coded all articles.

Here is a breakdown of the scope of the individuals or organizations making political claims over time. Claims are grouped into 5 years, and in all contexts the national (and sub-national) scope dominates — the maximum in the figure is 6.5%.

Also on figshare.

I note an upward trend in European claims between 2000-4 and 2005-9 in five countries, and downward trend in the two countries perhaps less closely integrated in the European Union.