New Publication in Electoral Studies

My article “Return migration, crime, and electoral engagement in Mexico” co-authored with Prof. Christian Ambrosius (UNAM, Mexico and Free University Berlin) has now been published in Electoral Studies. In this article, we contribute to the debate on the positive or negative political impact of return migrants using municipal data on voter turnout and on rates of return migration for the case of Mexico (2000-2010). Relying on an instrumental strategy that exploits migrants’ exposure to changes in unemployment rates as an exogenous predictor for return, we find robust evidence that high rates of return result in less electoral participation in presidential and local elections. Besides, electoral disengagement seems to be intensified by the presence of criminal violence, which surged during our period of analysis. Return migration may have a positive impact on other modes of political participation; but at least when it comes to voting, our research aligns with the pessimistic camp of the debate in that return migration increases electoral apathy. Please access the article here.