The paper seeks to understand and explain the changing nature of the political conflict in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Globalisation and immigration have emerged as major conflict dimensions all across Europe, structuring political competition and prompting heated debates. Its political consequences include the emergence and electoral success of anti-immigrant parties, polarised public discourse on culture and ethnicity, and restrictive immigration policies. In this context, CEE merits special attention because historically its political conflict structures have developed differently vis-à-vis the West, and because recent crises were experienced in dissimilar ways by Eastern and Western populations. Immigration is the key concern for CEE citizens (European Commission 2018), even though the countries are not major destinations for migrants and asylum seekers. The paper builds on the argument that in CEE, anti-globalisation and anti-immigration sentiments are an expression of defensive nationalism which is characteristic for the region. Rather than economically driven like in other parts of Europe, the globalisation conflict is expected to be culturally motivated. This hypothesis will be tested using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for ten new democracies in CEE. The study contributes towards an improved understanding of the globalisation backlash by offering novel theoretical explanations for the new political conflict in an understudied region in Europe.