ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

Exploring the Missing Links of Migrant Enfranchisement

Citizenship
Political Participation
Representation
Voting
Immigration
VIR106
Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero
Universidad Autònoma de Madrid – Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos del CSIC
Sorina Soare
Università di Firenze
Régis Dandoy
Université Libre de Bruxelles

Tuesday 14:00 - 15:45 CEST (23/08/2022)

Abstract

Ever-increasing international migration has stirred debates in the public sphere questioning the democratic dimension of political inclusion, specifically migrant voting. More states grant more political rights than ever before, including allowing foreign residents (immigrants or non-citizen residents) to vote in the residence country and non-resident citizens (emigrants and descendants) to vote from abroad in home-country elections. Previous research on enfranchisement—or the process of granting migrant voting rights—tend to theorize the normative reasons for granting or withholding such rights, or focus on the effects of these rights, such as migrant voter turnout and transnational state- or party-led outreach. Despite overarching acceptance of transnational belonging and multi-territorial political participation, migrant electoral rights tend to be theoretically taken as separate research areas (either foreign residents or non-resident citizens), even when some hypotheses explicitly explore both units of analysis. This panel brings together comparative analyses and case studies to fill in missing links that previous contributions overlook. It adds knowledge on the reasons for migrant enfranchisement, migrants’ agency in the process, and the different incentives that states and political parties face in less developed or less democratic countries, when deciding to grant rights or engage with migrants as political actors.

Title Details
Invisible Activism: Immigrants and their Efforts toward their own Enfranchisement View Paper Details
Minority Representatives’ Contributions to Plural Democracies: The Representations of other Disadvantaged Groups in Politics in Parliamentary Agendas  View Paper Details
Political parties and immigrant-origin candidates: Insights from the autonomous province of Bolzano View Paper Details
Parties’ Positions on Emigration and the Political Representation of Citizens Abroad: An In-Depth Analysis of the Spanish Case View Paper Details