While ‘multiculturalism’was once pos it ively associated with a polit ical ideal of a diverse soci ety, Europe has in the past years witnessed a backlash of multicul turalist discourses and the rise of polit ical actors that call for a reduction of or even a stop to immigration. In pub lic debates the idea that im mig rants have a right to maintain their culture is replaced by the idea that some cultures contra dict with lib eral uni ver sal values, and many coun tries have therefore introduced stricter immigration rules and obligatory civic integration tests for im mig rants. Cultural diversity is no longer regarded as an asset, but as a prob lem for social cohesion and col lect ive identity. In par ticu lar, Islam and im mig rants from Islamic coun tries are often perceived as posing a threat to Western Euro pean soci eties defined by lib eral values such as indi vidualism, secularism, and gender equality (Parekh 2006; Joppke 2007; Zúquete 2008; Betz and Meret 2009). The Neth er lands shifted from a multicultural approach to assimilation (Entzinger 2005). Likewise, Denmark moved towards one of the most restrictive Euro pean immigration and integration laws (Mouriten 2006), while Austria has never con sidered itself as an immigration coun try and already had an exclusive approach towards the rights of im mig rants, which has even been strengthened in the last years (Mourão Permoser and Rosenberger 2009). In par ticu lar, right-wing popu list par ties have been engaged in politicizing Islam and Muslim im mig rants, stig matizing them as the alien and backward ‘other’(Zúquete 2008). Most notably, veiling has been portrayed as a sign of the oppression of im mig rant women and, eventually, restrictions on the wearing of the Muslim headgear have been claimed by both the rad ical right and fem in ists alike (see Chapter 1). In some coun tries, this change in attitudes and pol icy positioning went together with a change towards more restrictive meas ures re gard ing veiling (see Chapter 8), but it did not in others. Decision makers in Austria, Denmark and the Neth er lands, three coun tries with elect orally strong rad ical populist par ties, took a different path. Despite increasing politicization of immigration and Islam, these coun tries con tinue to pursue an accommodating veiling pol icy. 1 This chapter ex plores the structural and discursive factors which influence the con tinu ity of accommodating veiling pol icies despite heavy populist challenge