Does Where You Live Affect How You Vote? An Analysis of Migrant Voting Behavior∇

Migrants ’ political attitudes are often different from those of their compatriots at home. We utilize a unique dataset on votes cast by Czech and Polish migrants in national elections in their home countries to examine three alternative explanations of migrant voting behavior: political re-socialization, economic self-selection and political self-selection. The results indicate that the political preferences of migrants change significantly in the wake of migration as migrants adapt to the norms and attitudes prevailing in the host country. There is little evidence that migrants ’ political attitudes are due to self-selection with regard to either their pre-migration political attitudes or economic characteristics