Does Election Salience Affect Immigrant Voter Turnout?

Oskarsson

2020

Preprint

If two elections are held at the same day, why do some people choose to vote in one but to abstain in another? We argue that selective abstention is driven by the same factors that determine voter turnout. Our empirical analysis focuses on Sweden where the (aggregate) turnout gap between local and national elections has been about 2-3%. Rich administrative registry data reveal that people from higher socio-economic backgrounds, immigrants, women, older individuals, and people who have been less geographically mobile are less likely to selectively abstain.

Section: Sweden As a Test Bedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Abstention in Simultaneous Elections: Understanding the Turnout Gap

Meriläinen

Oskarsson

2020

Preprint

“…An individual is allowed to vote in these elections if he or she is at least 18 years old and a citizen of Sweden, Iceland, Norway, or any EU country. Furthermore, permanent residents who are citizens of other countries are eligible to vote if they have lived in Sweden for three consecutive years (see also Aggeborn et al 2020). Differential eligibility rules call for individual-level data if we want to understand what is behind selective abstention.…”

Section: Sweden As a Test Bedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Abstention in Simultaneous Elections: Understanding the Turnout Gap

Meriläinen

Oskarsson

2020

Preprint

If two elections are held at the same day, why do some people choose to vote in one but to abstain in another? We argue that selective abstention is driven by same factors that determine voter turnout. Our empirical analysis focuses on Sweden where the turnout gap between local and national elections has been about 2 3%. Rich administrative registry data reveal that people from higher socio-economic backgrounds, immigrants, women, older individuals, and people who have been less geographically mobile are less likely to selectively abstain.

“…Tables, figures, and section names beginning with a Latin letter (e.g., A1, C3) refer to the online Appendix.11 We exclude North American and Japanese immigrants when constructing the workplace shares of non-European workers.12 The Stata do-files used for constructing our measures, as well as access modality and source location for all datasets used in this paper can be found atAndersson and Dehdari (2021).13 Although Sweden has a relatively large share of foreign-born citizens, the turnout rate is much higher among natives(Aggeborn et al 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Workplace Contact and Support for Anti-Immigration Parties

Andersson

2021

Am Polit Sci Rev

Self Cite

How does an increased presence of immigrants in the workplace affect anti-immigration voting behavior? While cooperative interactions between natives and immigrants can reduce intergroup prejudice, immigrant coworkers might be regarded as a threat to native-born workers’ labor market position. We combine detailed Swedish workplace data with precinct-level election outcomes for a large anti-immigration party (the Sweden Democrats) to study how the share of non-Europeans in the workplace affects opposition to immigration. We show that the share of non-Europeans in the workplace has a negative effect on support for the Sweden Democrats and that this effect is solely driven by same-skill contact in small workplaces. We interpret these results as supporting the so-called contact hypothesis: that increased interactions with minorities can reduce opposition to immigration among native-born voters, which, in turn, leads to lower support for anti-immigration parties.