Back in 2005 when I spent a month as a visiting scholar at Dresden Technical University in Germany, I was stunned to be told by several graduate students that in the rural areas of Saxony a quarter of voters supported so-called neo-nazi political parties and organizations. Now one of my favorite academic outlets, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, features in its latest issue two essays debating the roots of public support for radical right parties in Europe. For those logging on from an academic or institutional gateway with a subscription, the two essays are well worth checking out.
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Abstract: This paper examines Ireland's 2004 Constitutional Amendment which removes birthright citizenship from any future Irish-born children of immigrant parents. I argue that for particular historical reasons, the ability of the state to convince its citizens of the necessity for this Amendment was remarkable and I suggest that it was able to do so by constructing citizenship as a moral regime and foreign-nationals and their foetuses as 'suspect patriots.'....
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Hank Roberts,
Unfortunately, I could not access the article, but from the portion of the abstract I can appreciate its logic.
The referendum was accompanied by a wave of falsities circulated by press and politicians. The major story was that pregnant non-nationals were arriving just before term of their pregnancy, going straight from Dublin Airport to a maternity ward to have their babies, then leaving a week later confident thier children were now Irish (and EU) citizens.
The maternity wards were supposedly "swamped" by non-nationals making it difficult to cope with Irish women.
Even after these lies were denied by the masters of each maternity hospital (in a joint statement), somehow whenever the pro-side were at a loss for arguments, "maternity services" always crept back into the debate.
In the end the referendum was passed. Bad day for Ireland.