Anti-immigration protests across England, Northern Ireland, Spain and Poland have grown more frequent – and in some cases violent – as far-right groups gain influence in communities grappling with housing shortages, unemployment and inequality.
In England, the memory of last summer’s riots in Southport still lingers. The unrest began after three young girls were stabbed to death at a dance class in the seaside town on 19 July 2024.
The attack sparked violent protests that quickly spread to Northern Ireland, with riots breaking out in over a dozen towns and cities across the two nations of the United Kingdom.
Far-right activists were blamed for fuelling tensions by spreading false claims that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The unrest, which lasted several days, saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques, with hundreds of participants subsequently arrested and charged.
A year later, the same pattern is repeating. On Sunday 3 August, clashes broke out at protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers in Epping, Manchester, Newcastle and London. Far-right demonstrators clashed with anti-racism groups and local residents. Fifteen people were arrested.
In one such incident in Epping, a London suburb, anti-racism and refugee aid groups and residents opposed to the accommodation of asylum seekers in a local hotel had called for simultaneous rallies on Sunday, 3 August. Hundreds gathered from both sides under heavy police surveillance, following tensions at the site of the hotel the previous week.
On Saturday, a rally was held outside another hotel in Bowthorpe, near Norwich, according to UK media reports. On 21 July, several dozen people had demonstrated in Diss, in the east of England, to demand the closure of another hotel also housing asylum seekers.
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A few weeks prior, on 9 June, the town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland erupted when two teenagers of Romanian origin were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young girl.
Foreign residents of the town were forced to hide in wardrobes and attics to escape the rioters, with some hanging signs outside their homes declaring that they were Filipino, not Eastern European. Some housing associations warned residents to leave their homes and secure their property.
A month later, on 9 July, similar scenes played out in Spain after a 68-year-old man was attacked in the town of Torre Pacheco in Murcia, in the southwest.
Rallies held on 19 July in more than 80 towns and cities in Poland on 19 July remained peaceful, but saw protesters marching under "Stop immigration" banners in protest at Europe-wide policies.
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"We are witnessing a deliberate erosion of the fundamental principles of democratic coexistence," according to Gemma Pinyol Jiménez, a professor at the faculty of political science and sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
To continue to regard these demonstrations as isolated events would be "to run the risk of missing the crux of the problem" – namely "the growing normalisation of hate speech and xenophobia," she said.
The chicken or the egg?
Identity-based rhetoric, generally promoted by the far right, has been present in Europe since the beginning of the twentieth century. But the return of frequent, large-scale and often violent demonstrations signals a resurgence in the popularity of these ideas. But are they the root cause of the riots, or a catalyst for pre-existing tensions?
According to Pinyol Jiménez, "growing inequality, economic anxiety and social fragmentation" are among the reasons why those affected see identity-based discourse as the answer to their situation.
She added that although they are not the only reason for the re-emergence of xenophobic violence, these positions "foster fear, advocate exclusion and give legitimacy to violent action". The migrant takes on the role of scapegoat and becomes "a danger rather than a human being".
"High housing prices, unemployment or precarious working conditions" make it easy to "blame immigrants for all the ills of society", says Zenia Hellgren, a sociologist at Barcelona's public university and a member of an interdisciplinary research group on immigration.
In the UK, the youth unemployment rate is around 14 percent, while in Spain it is higher than 24 percent. Both countries are also experiencing a major housing crisis.
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In the UK, successive governments have kept the idea of a migratory crisis smouldering for years, with far-right figures fanning the flames by playing on collective fears.
Islamophobic influencer Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – known as Tommy Robinson – has regularly used his X (formerly Twitter) account, with its 1.3 million followers, to declare his support for those demonstrating outside what he calls "migrant hotels" – although he is yet to make an appearance at the protests.
Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform UK party, made his voice heard in the Epping protests by reposting misinformation about the police busing in counter-demonstrators.
The role of sectarianism
In Northern Ireland, the sectarianism that is an integral party of the country's history has a significant part to play in anti-immigration rhetoric, according to Jack Crangle, professor of modern history at Queen's University Belfast.
The hostility between Catholics and Protestants – republicans who identify as Irish and want to see Northern Ireland reunited with the Republic of Ireland, and loyalists who identify as British and support Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK, respectively – manifested as the 30-year ethno-religious conflict known as the Troubles, between the late 1960s and 1998.
While tensions between the two communities remain, this hostility "has gradually been directed towards a new 'Other' as immigration to Northern Ireland has increased" Crangle observed in an article entitled: Northern Ireland has a long history of immigration and diversity. And of racism.
The increase in anti-immigration and xenophobic rhetoric and activity on the part of certain loyalist movements, for whom Britishness is integral to their identity, has been documented for several years now.
On 10 July, a bonfire erected in the village of Moygashel as part of the annual loyalist celebrations of 12 July (commemorating the 1690 Battle of the Boyne in which Protestant King William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II) featured a boat full of black-skinned mannequins at the top of the pyre, accompanied by a sign reading "stop the boats".
Historical imagery
In Spain too, history is invoked to support the arguments of those opposed to immigration.
Since its rise to prominence in 2019, the country's far-right Vox party has drawn on "the imagery of the Reconquista," according to Carole Viñals, senior lecturer at the University of Lille and a specialist in contemporary Spain – referring to the period from 718-1492 in which Christian kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula fought to reclaim territories previously conquered by Muslim forces.
"They reject any attack on Spain's territorial unity," Viñals continued, "which [they say] is jeopardised by the influx of immigrants."
In the 2023 regional elections, Vox doubled its national score of 12.3 percent in the province of Murcia, reaching 26 percent in the municipality of Torre Pacheco – scene of July's unrest. The president of Vox in the region, José Ángel Antelo, is currently under investigation for inciting racial hatred in connection with the riots.
Pinyol Jiménez believes the violence observed in various parts of Europe since last summer needs to be viewed as a whole.
While she stresses the need to clamp down on hate speech, she says that above all European governments need to strengthen the welfare state, to respond to "the real needs of the population", if they want to see the "national preference" rhetoric brandished by the far right extinguished once and for all.
This article has been adapted from the original version in French.
