Contextual reasons for emigrants’ electoral participation in home country elections: the Portuguese case

Although emigrants represent an increasing share of the electoral
population in many democracies, not much is known about their
participation in home country elections. With the purpose of
contributing to fill such gap, this article develops a longitudinal
and exploratory analysis of the contextual factors of emigrants’
participation in national elections in the case of Portugal (1976–
2015), a country with one of the highest emigration rates of the EU today. It begins by presenting a longitudinal analysis of the electoral participation of Portuguese emigrants. Afterwards, the conditions underlying levels of participation are examined. Using aggregate data covering the main 15 destination countries, this study compares institutional, socio-economic and political contextual factors for voting. Findings indicate that the lack of political participation of emigrants is first demonstrated by the very low registration rates, although it varies according to the country, and that voting methods and socio-economic factors in the destination country are the most relevant to explain voting in home country elections.