Premigratory political experiences with autocracy and violence and immigrants’ willingness to vote

Abstract

Introduction In this paper, we examine how premigratory experiences shape the willingness of immigrants to engage with the political system of the host country. Methods Using the Immigrant Citizens’ Survey, a study of over 6600 immigrants in six European countries, and building upon previous work we test whether an immigrant who comes from an authoritarian country and/or a country that has experienced significant civil conflict, will affect the extent to which they are willing to politically engage in the politics of their host country. Results However, we find that whether an immigrant respondent came from a democracy or an extremely repressive regime at the time of their departure from the home country had no discernible effect on the willingness to vote in an election in the host country. We find that immigrants whose home country was embroiled in major civil conflicts at the time of their departure from the country are significantly more likely to express a willingness to politically engage in the politics of the host country, and this finding is robust across multiple model specifications. Conclusions This suggests that immigrants who hail from conflict countries are more likely to engage politically than immigrants from countries that have less conflict.

What Does It Take for Immigrants to Join Political Parties?

“…Though this research provides a good base for immigrant party membership, further research can extend the knowledge of how additional factors can shape the party activism of immigrants. Following the rising number of war refugees in Europe, as well as recent findings on the importance experience with political violence and political conflicts in the country of origin can have on the political orientation of immigrants (Okundaye et al, 2022;Soehl et al, 2023), further research will benefit from a more extended contextual framework in the country of origin and the implication it may have on the political behaviour of immigrants in their country of residence. Though the cross-sectional analysis has enabled us to provide generalisable knowledge on migrants' patterns of party membership in different countries in Europe, the low number of cases did not allow us to test further interactions with specific immigrant groups or ethnic groups within the countries.…”

“…Studies demonstrated that immigrants' experience with autocracy reduces their support for democracy (Bilodeau et al, 2010), lowers immigrants' trust in political institutions (Voicu & Tufiş, 2017), and can hamper their social trust (Xu & Jin, 2018). While the implications of the democratisation in the country of origin on the electoral behaviour in the country of residence are less conclusive (Bilodeau & Dumouchel, 2023;Bueker, 2005;Okundaye et al, 2022;Xu & Jin, 2018), immigrants' experience with autocratic regimes may hinder other forms of political participation in the country of residence; (Bilodeau, 2008;Bilodeau & Dumouchel, 2023). That said, party activism of immigrants, as one of the costliest forms of political participation, might be particularly affected by immigrants' experience with an autocratic regime in their country of origin.…”

Premigratory experiences with Civil War violence and social trust

“…On the other hand, many scholars have pointed to the negative effects of violence on political attitudes. For instance, exposure to political violence reduces popular support for democracy (Burchard 2015) and leads those traumatized individuals to withdraw from politics (Hutchison and Johnson 2011; see also Okundaye, Ishiyama, and Silva 2022) Trelles and Carreras (2012) argue that in areas where there is violence, people are less likely to trust others, and less likely to engage politically, largely because they fear reprisal. Scholars suggest that exposure to violence also causes greater animosity between groups.…”

“…Some research in political violence has demonstrated that for individuals who have experienced violence and conflict, there is a tendency to take that violent experience and use it to empower themselves as well as their community, thus suggesting greater trust in communities (Balcells 2012; Bellows and Miguel 2009; Blattman 2009). On the other hand, other scholars have suggested that experiences with violence reduce trust (Okundaye, Ishiyama, and Silva 2022; Hutchison and Johnson 2011; Cruz 2010; Malone 2010). Although there is considerable debate over the effects of violence on trust, relatively little work has examined whether experience with violence (particularly as the result of civil wars) impacts expressions of social trust in the host country (i.e., immigrants’ current country of residence).…”