Bad Experiences and Good Memories: Explaining Migrants’ Interest in Home vs Host Politics

Sergiu Gherghina (University of Glasgow) is an Associate Professor in Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics, University of Glasgow. His research interests lie in party politics in new democracies, legislative and voting behaviour, and democratization. Sorina Soare (University of Florence) is an Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics at the University of Florence. Her main research interests include political parties, populism and democratization. She is the Director of the Interuniversity Centre for Research on South Eastern Europe. Abstract: Interest in politics has been often used as an explanation for complex political attitudes and political behaviours. There is much research about the manifestation of migrants’ political interest towards host or home politics, including important comparisons. However, it remains unclear why certain types of political interests occur. This article addresses this gap in the literature and aims to explain what drives the formation of interest among migrants towards home politics as opposed to that in the residence countries. The analysis focuses on Romanian migrants abroad as the least likely case where interest towards home country politics can occur. We use individual-level data from a survey conducted in June-July 2022 with 1,058 labour migrants in 31 countries to study the effect of variables associated with the situation in the residence country, the ties with the origin country, and the activity of political parties. The results show a combination of causes for the variation in interest that have important implications for the idea of migrants’ transnational lives.