Politics,Not Economic Interests: Determinants of Migration Policies in the European Union1

In this article we examine the determinants of European Union (EU) migration policies. We look at the passage of six pieces of migration and immigrant integration legislation in the fifth European Parliament (1999–2004). Based on the sixty‐one roll‐call votes on these bills we create a “migration score” for each Member of the European Parliament. We then use regression analysis to investigate the determinants of these scores. We find that the strongest determinants of policy outcomes on migration issues in this arena are the left‐right preferences of EU legislators. These are stronger predictors than the economic preferences of national parties’ constituents or the economic interests or political preferences of the member states.