Geographies of external voting: the Tunisian elections abroad since the 2011 Uprising

Abstract

This contribution draws on the developing literature on the participation of citizens' abroad in elections of their country of origin. It looks at Tunisia as a case study. Although it focuses on a single case study, this paper is comparative to the extent that it puts the case of Tunisia in perspective with other cases from the literature, and that it discusses the influence of different settings on the voter turnout and the voting behaviour of the Tunisians abroad. By doing so, it shows how Tunisian specificities contribute to academic discussions on the diffusion of new citizenship norms in the age of globalization and on the extent to which migration contributes to political change in labour sending countries. The paper first explores the adoption of external voting provisions by the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as soon as 1988, and the extension of external voting rights after the 2011 Uprising. The paper further adopts a geographic, diachronic, and multi-level approach to analyse the voter turnout and the voting behaviour among the Tunisians abroad since 2011. Results first show that the adoption and implementation of external voting in Tunisia is closely articulated to domestic processes of political change, regardless of the type of regime (authoritarian or democratic). Furthermore, results show that the voting behaviour of the Tunisians abroad follows the same trends than their Tunisian counterparts, but that it varies significantly depending on their place of residence (country, city, and neighbourhood). Such observation challenges the idea according to which migrants socialised with liberal values in Western societies tend to promote such values in their homeland. In contrast, this paper argues that the voter turnout and the voting behaviour in external elections depend on pre-migration variables and on the local context in which migrants are embedded.

Political parties abroad as actors of transnational politics

“…At the individual level, they have looked at the role of resources and motivations to explain the political engagement of emigrants. When it comes to resources, studies have mainly focused on classic socio-demographic characteristics such as age or gender (Burgess, 2014;Guarnizo et al, 2003;Jones-Correa, 1998), education, occupation or socioeconomic status (Guarnizo et al, 2003;Jaulin, 2016), but studies have also looked into the degree of integration into the host society (Ahmadov & Sasse, 2016;Jones-Correa, 1998;Leal et al 2012), and networks and social connections with the country of origin (Ahmadov & Sasse, 2016;Burgess, 2012;Careja & Emmenegger, 2012;Ciornei & Østergaard-Nielsen, 2020).…”

Migrants and their families in the home country: a bi-directional influence on voting behaviour

“…Migrants tend to become external agents of democratization if the regime in their home country is oppressive or the level of democracy is low (Jaulin 2016). In their host societies, migrants often interact with political, social and cultural norms and attitudes that are different from those in their home countries.…”

Participation and Voting Behavior of Poles Abroad in Home Country Elections. Th e Case of Poles in the US and Canada in Comparative Perspective

“…Quantitative analysis of Latino National Survey data show that the longer the period abroad, the lower the interest of emigrants in elections in the country of origin, which may be associated with less and less interest in domestic politics in home country, and deeper integration with the host society (Waldinger et al 2012). In addition, the study of Tunisian migrants presents that the level of participation in election varied signifi cantly among the destination countries where diff erent profi les of emigrant populations reside (in the US and Canada which attracts highly skilled Tunisians the level of participation in home elections is much higher than in European countries where low skilled workers dominate in Tunisian population) (Jaulin 2015).…”

“…Th e socio-economic profi le of voters and self-organization of migrant population also matter. Th e existing studies indicate that men, younger and better educated persons with stable employment and legal status in the country of residence are more likely to vote in the elections in home country (Jaulin 2015;Lafl eur, Sanchez-Dominguez 2015). Th e social capital of emigrants, including their organizational structure and the frequency and intensity of their contacts with the country of origin, as well as local dynamics within diaspora communities also play an important role in supporting electoral engagement.…”