How Voting Rights Affects Public Opinion toward Immigration in the EU

• In Event: Exploring Identity and Deservingness in Migration Policy

Abstract

Public opinion across the EU is divided on providing immigrants with greater political rights. Although the EU guarantees citizens an extensive array of rights, including the right to vote and stand as a candidate in local elections, the decision to provide non-EU citizens similar participatory rights remains within the competencies of member-states, generating variation in the capacity for non-EU immigrants to make political claims on their state of residence. In this paper, we examine whether political rights afforded to immigrants affect Europeans’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. Do these rights communicate new norms of European inclusion and identity, such that EU citizens are more open to immigrants? Or do non-EU immigrant voting rights present a political competition for EU citizen voters, thereby increasing anti-immigrant sentiment? Using cross-sectional survey data from 19 EU countries, we find immigrant voting rights correspond with positive attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. We complement this cross-sectional approach with original survey data in Germany, considering how the introduction of immigrant voting rights can change citizen attitudes toward immigrant communities. The findings reveal that granting non-EU immigrant voting rights reduces EU citizen prejudice toward immigrants and immigration, suggesting voting rights help to generate inclusionary norms by challenging exclusionary notions of European political identity.

Authors

• Sabrina Marasa

• Hannah Marie Alarian, University of Florida