Emigration Salience in Election Campaigns: A Study of Spanish Parties’ Political Pledges to the Diaspora

How parties (promise to) represent mobile populations has triggered increased scholarly interest. In Europe, while scholars have thoroughly scrutinized party positions on immigration, far less is known about partisan stances towards diasporas, the salience of emigration in electoral campaigns, or the specific promises parties make to citizens abroad. To address this gap, we conceptually bridge theories of issue salience, diaspora representation, and party politics, arguing that emigration salience in parties’ electoral pledges can be shaped by a constellation of factors, including emigrants’ demographic and electoral weight, party ideology, and electoral competition. We test this in Spain, a country marked by a long emigration history, shifting party dynamics, and important external voting reforms. Methodologically, we combine analyses of emigration salience in party manifestos over four decades—using a novel coding scheme—with interviews with leaders of party branches abroad.