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Migration Background and Voting Behavior in Switzerland: A Socio‐Psychological Explanation
Author(s) -
Strijbis Oliver
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1111/spsr.12136
Subject(s) - ingroups and outgroups , voting , test (biology) , voting behavior , political science , social psychology , demographic economics , descriptive statistics , general election , psychology , sociology , economics , law , politics , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , biology
Research on electoral choices of citizens with migration background has remained largely descriptive. What is missing is a systematic test of theories that can explain individuals with migration background's voting behavior. This article provides such a test on the basis of a post‐electoral survey from the 2011 Swiss general election. It is the first study on the electoral behavior of the first and second generation in Switzerland. And it shows that specific migration background impacts considerably on vote choice. In particular, individuals with migration background belonging to outgroups have a higher propensity to vote for the Left than natives. This relationship is partly explained by the party identifications adopted by the citizens with migration background belonging to outgroups.