Working Paper: NBER ID: w30523
Authors: Simone Moriconi; Giovanni Peri; Riccardo Turati
Abstract: We analyze whether second-generation immigrants have different political preferences relative to observationally identical children of citizens in the host countries. Using data on individual voting behavior in 22 European countries between 2001 and 2017, we characterize each vote on a left-right scale based on the ideological and policy positions of the party receiving the vote. In the first part of the paper, we characterize the size of the "left-wing bias" in the vote of second-generation immigrants after controlling for a large set of individual characteristics and origin and destination country fixed effects. We find a significant left-wing bias of second-generation immigrants, comparable in magnitude to the left-wing bias associated with living in urban (rather than rural) areas. We then show that this left-wing bias is associated with stronger preferences for inequality-reducing government intervention, internationalism and multiculturalism. We do not find that second-generation immigrants are biased towards or away from populist political agendas.
Keywords: immigration; political preferences; voting behavior; second-generation immigrants
JEL Codes: J61; P16; Z1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| left-wing bias (D72) | stronger preferences for government intervention (D72) |
| left-wing bias (D72) | values promoting internationalism and multiculturalism (F01) |
| urban living conditions (R23) | voting behavior (D72) |
| second-generation immigrants (J69) | left-wing bias (D72) |
| second-generation immigrants (J69) | political orientation (P26) |