Project description
Do anti-immigrant sentiments challenge democratic values?
While today’s democracies rest on equal rights, many citizens in Europe and the Middle East are expressing hostility toward immigrants. The ERC-funded DEMIG project will study this tension and explore why exclusionary views grow in societies that claim to value fairness. It will examine whether democratic rules are applied to certain groups rather than universally. These findings are expected to help create inclusive migration policies and set new standards for measuring social attitudes. Shedding light on current contradictions, DEMIG aims to explain the roots of current political strain. This work could help ensure that democratic promises apply to every person, regardless of their background or origin.
Objective
The emerging paradox between widespread support for liberal democracy and rising anti-immigrant attitudes across Europe and the Middle East presents a critical challenge to democratic governance. This contradiction threatens core democratic values, as societies that advocate equal rights simultaneously adopt exclusionary attitudes. The Democracy-Migration Paradox (DEMIG) project investigates this complex relationship, exploring how negative attitudes toward immigrants can coexist with, and potentially undermine, democratic principles.
DEMIG’s strength lies in its integration of frontier theoretical research and cutting-edge methodological innovation. Theoretically, DEMIG examines how anti-immigrant attitudes intersect with democratic values, exploring whether exclusionary attitudes lead to selective adherence to democratic principles, where citizens uphold ideals in theory but resist applying them to specific groups. This sheds light on the tension between democratic ideals and exclusionary practices, offering deeper insights into the ongoing crisis of democracy.
Methodologically, DEMIG distinguishes itself through AI-assisted survey techniques and longitudinal surveys with embedded experiments to measure attitudes toward immigrants and democracy across diverse contexts. DEMIG will develop an AI model that generates precise, bias-resistant survey questions, advancing survey implementation and an experimental panel study. By minimizing social desirability bias and improving survey quality, DEMIG sets new standards in survey research, providing accurate measurements of how immigrant attitudes interact with democratic attachment.
Insights from DEMIG will help policymakers craft inclusive migration policies, while its methodological breakthroughs will provide lasting resources for future research on migration and democracy. By advancing new approaches and addressing an urgent issue, DEMIG will make a transformative impact in both political science and survey methods.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences sociology demography human migrations
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
34956 ISTANBUL
Türkiye
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.