From immigration ‘realism’ to normalised hate-speech? Borderline discourse and the mainstreaming of far-right illiberalism on/via social media

This article explores analytically how articulation and recontextualisation of a specific form of ‘borderline discourse’ has been pivotal in political mainstreaming of illiberal views of contemporary far-right regarding immigration. Looking into borderline discourse dynamics in the context of social media – specifically of Twitter/X – the article explores critically how its use in party-political communication would, over time, facilitate the eventual spread as well as mainstreaming of illiberal far-right ideas and notions across the wider political spectrum. Analysing Tweets of the Swedish parliamentary political parties in the period 2010–2022, the article showcases how their political communication on social media would not only become preoccupied with immigration but also how a variety of positions ranging from ‘immigration-realist’ to overtly anti-immigration ones would become anchored across the Swedish political spectrum. While the far-right would still emerge as initiator and key articulator of many views on immigration – including those known from the wider contemporary international illiberalism – we also point to the role played in the process by other parties. We show thereby how far-right ideas eventually become recontextualised across the political spectrum thus contributing to the mainstreaming of the far right and its rhetoric and to the eventual general normalization of illiberal, imigration-related views.