Immigrants’ Political Party Preference Pre- and Post-migration

• In Event: The Political Preferences of Immigrants and Foreigners

Abstract

This paper asks to what extent individuals’ political ideology and party preference transfer from one country to another. Disagreement exists in the literature about whether political attitudes and behaviors are formed early in life and are resistant to change, or are highly adaptable in response to political experiences in a new context and as a migrant. We use data from the 2021 Canadian Election Survey and from our own survey data of recent immigrants to Canada, both of which include measures of self-assessed pre- and post-migration political ideology and party preference. We show how new Canadian residents report a greater preference for Canadian political parties to the left of the parties they preferred pre-migration. This finding is in line with the literature on immigrants’ vote choice that shows a preference of parties on the left of the political spectrum among immigrants, but sharply contrasts with our second finding: new Canadian residents simultaneously report a shift to the ideological right post-migration. We test several explanations for these contrasting findings and discuss the implications for the literature.

Authors

• Eline A. de Rooij, Simon Fraser University

• Maxime Coulombe, Université de Montréal