Voters with an Immigration Background and Immigration Policy Discourse

• In Event: The Political Preferences of Immigrants and Foreigners

Abstract

How do voters with an immigrant background react to the discourses of immigration policies? Do they support radical right parties that are opposed to immigration? Or do they show similar voting behavior as natives since they are no longer immigrants but naturalized to the host society? One of the key issues during the recent elections across Europe has been immigrants. Unlike the past elections where far-right parties were still not considered mainstream and their ideologies were radical and socially unacceptable, albeit their rise, the recent elections in Europe show that far-right parties have been “normalized”, meaning that voters now consider them as one of the normal parties and people socially accept their positions and expression. However, many of these “targeted” immigrants do have voting rights just like native-born and these immigrant-origin voters are important electorate as well. They are unfortunate targets of the elections but at the same time the voters who can cast votes for those parties during elections.
Using the European Social Survey, this paper aims to identify what affects voting behavior among immigrant-origin voters in 23 European countries, based on the theories of social cleavage and expressive identity. we argue that party positions on immigration policies mainly affect the vote choice among voters with an immigration background in Europe. Immigrants are more likely to choose a party with more favorable attitudes towards immigrants even when other positions are less appealing. In addition, we attempt to investigate whether their voting behaviors are affected by their political ideologies and the political systems of the host societies. These findings contribute to our understanding of the psychological dynamics involved in the transition from outsiders (immigrants) to insiders (naturalized voters) and of the political integration of minority groups.

Authors

• Younghyun Lee, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell, University of North Texas