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Explaining support for populists among external voters: between home and host country

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Abstract

Contributing to the emerging debate on non-resident citizens’ electoral preferences, this article addresses how migratory contexts affect their propensity to vote for populists. Employing two original datasets with information of external voting results from Latin America and Southern Europe, this study suggests that while external voters are on average slightly less likely to vote for populists than domestic voters, this varies meaningfully from country to country. It depends on the type of populism, populists’ incumbency, and the ideological preferences in the country of residence.

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Notes

  1. Ecuador has three extraterritorial districts ([1] Canada and USA; [2] Europe, Asia, and Oceania; and [3] Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa); while Italy just one, divided into four geographical regions ([1] Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Antarctica; [2] Central and North America; [3] Europe; and [4] South America).

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Acknowledgements

We extend our gratitude to Noelle Bridgen, Johanna Peltoniemi, Sorina Soare, Floris Vermeulen and Myra Waterbury and all the participants of the ECPR Joint Sessions “Diaspora Mobilisation and Homeland Politics”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Citizenship Observatory, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

    Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero

  2. Faculty of Political Science and Law, Casa Grande University, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero

  3. Institute for Research in Social Science, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile

    Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero

  4. Institute of Political Science and Governance, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Mari-Liis Jakobson

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  1. Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero
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Correspondence to Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero.

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de Reguero, S.U., Jakobson, ML. Explaining support for populists among external voters: between home and host country. Eur Polit Sci 22, 119–142 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-022-00403-8

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