Voting 'Here' and 'There": Integration and Transnational Political Participation Among Immigrants in Europe

Ali Chaudhary
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford

Abstract:
In this article, I examine the relationship between immigrant voting in receiving and origin-country national elections. Existing scholarship on transnational political engagement offers competing interpretations regarding the relationship between immigrant integration and transnational engagement. One strand of scholarship contends that transnational political engagement declines overtime as immigrants undergo a re-socialization in their new receiving societies. Another stand argues that socioeconomic incorporation and transnational engagement are complimentary processes. Building on past research, I analyze these competing perspectives with random survey data collected between 2004 and 2008 for approximately 13 different immigrant groups residing across seven European cities. I also analyze how contextual conditions in origin and receiving countries shape immigrants’ propensities to participate in homeland elections. Findings offer support for both the re-socialization and complimentary perspectives while also highlighting the ways in which immigrants’ propensities to engage in transnational electoral politics are shaped by a host of contextual factors.
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