Introduction: researching immigrant and emigrant voting

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the papers in this Special Issue on immigrant and emigrant voting. The article discusses theoretical and empirical themes regarding immigrant and emigrant voting, including turnout among immigrants and emigrants, partisanship among immigrants and franchise rules for immigrants and emigrants. It outlines existing findings and gaps in the literature on these themes, and then explains how the articles in this Special Issue advance knowledge in this field. The case studies examined in this Special Issue – Canada, Australia and New Zealand – are also introduced.

KEYWORDS:

• Political participation
• immigration
• immigrant integration
• electoral behaviour
• voter turnout

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Most of the articles in this Special Issue were originally presented at the workshop ‘Immigrant and Emigrant Political Participation and Representation: Putting New Zealand’s Experience into Comparative Perspective’, held at Victoria University of Wellington in December 2015. The workshop was generously supported by a European Commission New Zealand European Union Centres Network grant, provided for the research project Comparing Trans-national Integration Across Regions: Europe and the Asia-Pacific (WP1C). We are also grateful to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, for assistance with participant travel.

2. Immigrants on a permanent visa may vote in national elections after 1 year’s residence, and non-resident citizens and permanent residents may continue voting in national elections as long as they return to New Zealand every 3 years or 1 year, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission [31895 EU Centres Network DG RELEX] and by Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences [FRG 3387].

Notes on contributors

Fiona Barker

Fiona Barker is senior lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Programme at Victoria University of Wellington. Her current research focuses on the political participation and representation of immigrants and ethnic minorities in advanced democracies.

Kate McMillan

Kate McMillan is senior lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Programme at Victoria University of Wellington. Her current research focuses on immigrants’ social and electoral rights in New Zealand and Australia, and refugee politics in South East Asia.