In this book, Gallya Lahav offers a nuanced account of the nascent and dynamic Europeanization of migration policy. Moving beyond scholarship that narrowly casts migration as a contest between supranational and domestic constraints, Lahav depicts the prospects for collective European migration policymaking as a product of “emergent consensual attitudes on restrictive policies, among elites and mass publics alike” (p. 9). By “bringing attitudes back in,” her treatment offers a welcome complement to intergovernmentalist and neofunctionalist accounts of migration policy and reminds readers that as policymakers grapple with the domestic and international challenges of contemporary immigration, cooperation may be of a negative or restrictive sort.

The book begins with a theoretical chapter, introducing the analytical framework, and then provides a brief sketch of the institutionalization of European migration policy in Chapter 2. The theoretical chapter departs from supranational and intergovernmental accounts of European migration policy by focusing not on the role of “the state” but rather on the determinants of actual state policy mechanisms in managing migration. Lahav contends that attitudinal cleavages and the organization of competing interests, considerations largely absent from state-centered realist and neofunctionalist scholarship, are key to understanding Europe's recent movements toward supranationalism in matters of migration. She explores the diverse mix of national, ideological, and European interests underlying state incentives to cooperate on immigration and views institutional developments as a product of evolving, national-level immigration norms.

Chapters 3 through 5 draw on a wealth of original and secondary attitudinal data sources to depict, in great empirical detail, the cognitive and normative components of immigration policy. Although the link between individual-level attitudinal data and national policy preferences is often murky, Lahav admirably sorts through Eurobarometer surveys to provide a rich attitudinal portrait of public opinion regarding immigration policy over the 1988–98 period. She further draws upon her own elite survey of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to offer rich insights into parliamentarians' attitudes toward immigration (in 1992). Collectively, the mass and elite surveys contribute to an empirically grounded analysis that puts attitudes at the center of European migration policy.

In Chapter 3, Lahav contends that European publics are more informed about immigration matters than often thought and that MEPs and publics view the issue as both very significant and problematic. She notes that publics and elites favor decreasing immigration and that both groups slightly prefer admission of European Union nationals to migrants from Eastern Europe or “south of the Mediterranean.” Clear differences between publics and elites emerge on matters of immigrant integration, with MEPs more supportive of the extension of rights to immigrants than mass publics. Responses to survey questions about the proper level of policy authority (national government, European Community/EU, or both) reveal mass and elite ambivalence, a finding consistent with the tepid progress toward Europeanization of migration and asylum documented in Chapter 2.

Chapter 4 examines national and ideological sources of attitudes as inputs in the process of transnational interest articulation and possible European policy cooperation. Lahav finds that the proportion of non-EU foreigners in EU member states underlies national perceptions of immigration, but she identifies politics, rather than demographic trends, as the critical determinant of national preferences. Indeed, she presents convincing evidence that the venerable left–right ideological continuum predicts MEPs' positions on immigration levels and migrant group preferences. European Parliament members from left parties are significantly more inclined to favor immigration, extend immigrant rights, and delegate migration policy authority to the EU than are their counterparts on the right.

Chapter 5 turns to the “European factor” and examines how European integration affects and, in turn, is affected by immigration attitudes. Lahav contends that the EU's burgeoning development broadens the institutional and psychological basis of support for immigration, as well as possible support for the delegation of migration policymaking authority. She finds a link between support for European integration and openness to immigration among MEPs and European publics, and she addresses how the complexities associated with integration generate new political fault lines. In this regard, Lahav closely reviews how postmaterialism, cognitive mobilization, and other notions of “new politics” challenge traditional cleavages, noting that the European factor offers a new framework for debate and alliance formation in migration policymaking, though the relevance of the traditional left–right distinction remains.

Immigration and Politics in the New Europe brings a vast range of depth, knowledge, and empirical detail to the question of European migration policy. Lahav's study is a notable effort to weave institutional narrative and quantitative analysis together in order to tackle a theoretically and substantively pressing concern. At the same time, several of the author's findings invite further scrutiny and clarification. Public opinion and elite attitudes are, to start, critical for understanding national migration policies, as the author well details. Yet how precisely individual-level attitudes are translated into national-level policy preferences often remains obscure. Attitudes toward non-EU residents and increasing foreign populations in the early 1990s (amidst adverse national economic conditions) clearly shape national immigration preferences, but how such concerns, in turn, drive national positions toward cooperation on migration at the EU level is not straightforward. Nor is the role of the European Parliament (a more significant actor today than in 1992) in the broader process of the Europeanization of migration policy. The author provides original and insightful analysis of MEPs' attitudes, yet the role of the EP and its importance in transforming debate or shaping national positions toward immigration remains underdeveloped and the subject for additional productive research.

Despite such minor qualms, Immigration and Politics in the New Europe is a promising effort to push scholars of migration, international relations, and comparative politics to rethink the linkages among immigration, public opinion, and economic integration. The author's elite interviews and parliamentary survey, as well as careful culling of secondary opinion studies, are testimony to the project's ambition and importance. It is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature and will surely spark continued research and debate.