The implications of changing migration discourses and the rise of the far-right in Europe on peripheral, rural communities in Wales and Sweden.

The 21st century has seen a rise in far-right sentiment and politics across Europe. This is sometimes attributed to rural communities and the spaces imagined to be backward within states. I am interested in how peripheral rural communities negotiate changing migration discourses. To what extent do people in these communities feel part of the national project? How is whiteness performed in these spaces? Are there differences between national and local media discourses on migration and whiteness? How are immigrants seen in these peripheries and what is it like to be an immigrant within them?

The research will be conducted in Wales and Northern Sweden. It will broaden our understanding of the relationship between peripheral rural communities and the national project as well as how the notions of whiteness and migration are performed, understood, contested and valued in these locations.