Spanish Parties’ Stances on Emigrants’ Electoral Rights: Between Ideological Commitments, Strategic Calculations and Party Competition Dynamics

Daniela Vintila (University of Liège) is Associate Coordinator and Senior Network Officer of IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) at the Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) of the University of Liège. She is also chair of the ECPR Standing Group Migration and Ethnicity and of the IPSA Research Committee RC03 European Unification. Her interests lie, especially, in the areas of comparative politics, citizenship, international migration, political participation and representation, and social protection policies. Carles Pamies (Sciences Po Paris) is adjunct professor at the Centre d’Études Européennes of Sciences Po Paris. He did his PhD at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Prior to this, he was research fellow at the National Distance Education University (UNED) and visiting fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford. His main research interests include political parties, political behaviour, and political elites. He published in journals such as American Behavioral Scientist, European Political Science, Journal of Contemporary European Studies and Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas. Marta Paradés (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas) is Assistant Professor at Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Her research interests include political attitudes, political representation, and migration. Abstract: Widespread policies on emigrant enfranchisement have triggered increasing scholarly interest on the diaspora-homeland political nexus. Recent studies highlight that an important analytical facet of this nexus rests in homeland parties’ incentives for reaching out to the extra-territorial electorate and their strategies for representing the interests of non-resident voters in domestic policymaking. However, the evidence collected so far - mostly from t 'Global South' countries or from European states of more recent emigration- provides a rather mixed picture. It shows that while some parties pro-actively put forward policy proposals for extending diaspora’s rights, others only marginally engage with emigration issues. Yet, little is known so far on what explains such variation. This article aims to address this research gap by providing insights regarding the factors that shape homeland parties’ stances on the electoral rights of migrants in origin countries. Conceptually, we argue that increased party competition strongly moderates the effect of parties’ ideological commitments and strategic electoral calculations on their motivations to support emigrants’ electoral rights. Empirically, we test this argument for the Spanish context, which provides an interesting mix between a long history of emigration, diaspora’s diverse profile and strong electoral potential, recent procedural changes for voting from abroad, and shifting party competition dynamics due to the emergence of new parties challenging the traditional Spanish party system. The analysis draws on a mixed methodological approach combining analyses of official data on emigrants’ vote choice, electoral manifestos of mainstream parties, and semi-structured interviews with party leaders abroad.