Left–right political spectrum
The terms left-wing and right-wing are widely used in the United States, but as on the global level there is no firm consensus about their meaning. The only aspect that is generally agreed upon is that they are the defining opposites of the United States political spectrum. Left and right in the U.S. are generally associated with liberal and conservative respectively, although the meanings of the two sets of terms do not entirely coincide. Depending on the political affiliation of the individual using them, these terms can be spoken with varying implications. A 2005 poll of 2,209 American adults showed that "respondents generally viewed the paired concepts liberals and left-wingers and conservatives and right-wingers as possessing, respectively, generally similar political beliefs", but also showed that around ten percent fewer respondents understood the terms left and right than understood the terms liberal and conservative.
Open–closed political spectrum
Opposition to immigration is one of the starkest divides between open and closed parties. The closed position supports restrictions on migration, and prefers that immigrants integrate into the national culture. By contrast, the open position takes a more liberal stance on migration, and tolerates or even celebrates multiculturalism. Both left-wing and right-wing parties can be closed on the topic of immigration: the conservative Polish Law and Justice accuses immigrants of undermining Polish values and bringing in terrorists, while the socialist German Left Party considers immigrants a drain on the welfare state. Conversely, in the United Kingdom for example the Adam Smith Institute (a neoliberal right-wing organisation) and Vince Cable (a left-wing social democrat and former business secretary) stand together as some of the strongest defenders of immigration.