This presentation will provide an overview of recent research advances on migration narratives, which are increasingly recognised as central to migration politics and policymaking. First, it will examine the often underspecified concept of narratives: What are they? How do they shape human experience? What makes some narratives spread? What are their effects?
Second, these insights will be applied to conceptualise, measure, describe, and explain belief in a prominent contemporary anti-immigration narrative in Western democracies—the Great Replacement Theory—using original European data. Finally, James Dennison will share results from a survey measuring belief in 20 migration narratives among representative samples of Kenyans, Nigerians, and South Africans, disaggregated by migration desires, plans, preparations, and willingness to migrate irregularly.
James Dennison is a part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the European University Institute in Florence and the 2025/26 Pierre Keller Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. ?He directs the Observatory of Public Attitudes to Migration (OPAM) at the MPC. His research interests include political attitudes, behaviour, and communication, migration, and quantitative methods.