A Cross-National Study of 21 European Democracies

Although immigrants constitute an increasing share of the population and the electorate in many established democracies, we know surprisingly little about how immigrants participate in civic life and how migration may help to transform the patterns of political engagement in contemporary democracies. In particular, we know little about the differences in impact of citizenship versus immigrant status on participation. While citizenship is a requirement for electoral participation, research is less clear about the impact of citizenship on other forms of political engagement. Drawing a distinction between citizenship and foreign-born status, and using survey data collected as part of the European Social Survey (ESS) in 21 European democracies, we find that the impact of citizenship on nonelectoral participation is positive but modest compared to its effect on electoral participation. Moreover, the impact of citizenship is reduced further when we control for immigrant experiences in their country of origin and their host environment. Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Michael Jones-Correa for helpful suggestions