The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy

Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s interviews with the rising stars of the new right tell the story of how we got here, tracing the global rise of anti-immigration politics and the ruthlessly effective rebranding of Europe’s new far right as defenders of Western liberal values. His new book ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ is an indispensable account of why xenophobia went mainstream in countries known historically as defenders of human rights and models of tolerance.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky (@sasha_p_s) is an Open Society Foundations fellow. He was an op-ed editor at the New York Times and a senior editor at Foreign Affairs and holds a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, the New Republic and the Boston Globe.

Philippe Legrain (@plegrain) is founder of Think Tank OPEN and Senior Visiting Fellow, European Institute, LSE.

The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

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LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.