When are citizens willing to enfranchise noncitizen residents, evidence from six countries

As democracies’ populations continue to become more diverse from immigration, the question remains as to who should be participating in political decision making and when? This is important in light of increased barriers to citizenship and countries differing approaches to political integration. We ask when citizens are willing to extend political rights to noncitizens and what impacts this decision. To that end, we test whether the fulfilment of integration requirements drive beliefs about noncitizen voting rights with data from a survey fielded in 2021 in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Initial results show that integration criteria have differing effects on when citizens believe noncitizen residents should be enfranchised, namely that the importance of paying taxes, employment and not taking out social welfare has positive effects on receiving early voting rights, while the importance of cultural integration, language ability, and having knowledge about the political system move individuals towards believing that voting rights should be rewarded with citizenship.