To Vote or Not to Vote? Comparing Polish and Romanian Migrants’ Reflections on External Voting Behaviour and Transnational Political (Dis)engagement.

While scholarly attention on external voting globally and on states’ concerns with emigrants, is growing, the reasons why, and the dynamics which shape whether migrants do or do not engage politically in origin contexts remain elusive. Whereas analyses of diaspora voting patterns, offer insights into the ways in which diasporas vote more similarly or differently compared to origin populations, there is a lacuna of knowledge about why migrants choose to vote externally, or indeed why they do not vote externally, when they have the right to do so. This paper draws on 80 semi-structured interviews (to be collected January-March 2020), with migrants from Poland and Romania, exploring reflections on external voting behaviour and the transnational political engagement (or disengagement) among diasporas. Comparing Polish and Romanian migrants’ reflections on diaspora political engagement, across two origin countries, and two destination countries – Polish migrants in Norway and Spain, and Romanian migrants in Norway and Spain, allows for exploration of the how migrant settlement country political systems interact with other factors shaping transnational commitment, to produce specific dynamics of diaspora political (dis)engagement in these contexts. [Because the data is to be collected, no findings yet]. Marta Bivand Erdal a marta@prio.org Davide Bertelli a davber@prio.org Anatolie Cosciug a, b anatolie.cosciug@fspac.ro Angelina Kussy c, d angelinakussy@gmail.com Gabriella Mikiewicz a gabriella.mikiewicz@gmail.com Corina Tulbure d, e ctulbure@yahoo.com Kacper Szulecki d (presenter) kacper.szulecki@gmail.com