Voting home or abroad? Comparing migrants' electoral participation in countries of origin and of residence

Bibliographic Data

ID11048844
AuthorsGherghina (0000-0002-6627-5598, University of Glasgow, corresponding author), Huan-Kai Tseng (George Washington University)
Year2016
Volume44
Issue3
Pages456-472
Publication date2016-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00905992.2015.1132690
OpenAlexW2275773664
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited27

The political participation of immigrants has received increased scholarly attention over recent decades. However, comparisons between the electoral behavior of immigrants in their countries of origin and of residence are still limited. This article addresses this gap in the literature and seeks to identify the determinants of Romanian immigrants' electoral participation in the local elections of four West European countries (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) as compared to their turnout in their home country's legislative elections. Looking through the lenses of exposure theory, we hypothesize that contact with institutions, people, and values from the countries of residence are likely to have different effects in the two types of elections. We test the explanatory power of four main variables - time spent in the host country, social networks, degree of involvement in the local community, and the type of relationship with citizens of their host countries - to which we add a series of individual-level controls such as age, education, gender, and media exposure. To assess our claim, we employ binary logistic regression to analyze original web survey data collected in the summer of 2013. The result supports the empirical implications of exposure theory

Country of origin · Demographic economics · Economics · Explanatory power · Immigration · Legislature · Logistic regression · Political science · Politics · Residence · Romanian · Turnout · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access