When the Voice Exits: Domestic Migration and Inequality in Representation

• In Event: Political Economy of Internal Migration

Abstract

This paper links domestic migration to political inequality. I propose that migration draws the attention of national political parties to places that attract many movers (i.e., in-migration areas), resulting in the systematic underrepresentation of out-migration areas in national politics. This is because domestic migrants are more invested in national politics, such that their concentration raises national electoral turnout in in-migration areas and makes it easier for parties to mobilize voters there. The paper supports these arguments in the context of contemporary Germany. I leverage household panel data to describe the political differences between migrants and non-migrants. Data on domestic migration and voting in national and local elections then illustrates how migration alters voting patterns. Analysis of new data on political campaign stops, all candidates running in the 2021 federal election, and the biographies of all German Members of Parliament since reunification demonstrate that domestic migration leads to an over-representation of in-migration areas and an under-representation of out-migration areas. These results have important implications for our understanding of democratic discontent and local service delivery.

Author

• Hans Lueders, Stanford University