Invisible Activism: Immigrants and their Efforts toward their own Enfranchisement

While emigrants are credited with an active role in efforts toward their right to vote, the role of immigrants is regularly ignored or dismissed. I argue that this dismissal of immigrant activism in much of the enfranchisement literature is frequently a result of methodological choices on the part of researchers. Due to institutional barriers as well as strategic choices by campaigners, the visibility of immigrant involvement in efforts toward the right to vote can be reduced. This low visibility presents a methodological challenge for scholars studying enfranchisement because the administrative paper trail can be insufficient to unearth immigrant activism. I revisit Switzerland as one of the most widely studied cases of immigrant enfranchisement with the help of two subnational case studies—the cantons Geneva and Zurich. Not only were immigrants involved in various ways, but at certain points along the process their engagement could even prove critical. By comparing parliamentary debates with interview as well as archival evidence, I demonstrate that only the latter two provide a glimpse into the contributions of immigrants to their enfranchisement.