External Voting and Voter Turnout: A Discussion on Migrants Decisions to Register and Vote in Home Country Elections

What factors influence migrants’ decision to participate in home country elections? While existing literature on general voter turnout and turnout of minority and migrant voters has long attempted to explain why migrants become involved in the politics in their place of residence, little is known about what drives emigrants to vote in their home country elections from abroad. This paper builds up on this literature to determine what variables should be analyzed to understand the behavior of external voters, and also points out possible alternative variables. To support this discussion, the paper relies on analyses of four countries - Italy, Belgium, Mexico and Bolivia - that have implemented external voting mechanisms in recent years.