Seminar: Electoral rights and political behavior among non-resident citizens

The last two decades have witnessed a burgeoning interest in the electoral rights and political behavior of external citizens, and for good reasons. With more and more countries enfranchising their non-resident citizens or introducing policies that make it easier to vote from abroad, the relative size and influence of voters living abroad have rapidly increased. At the same time, new communication technologies allow citizens living abroad to easily stay informed and involved in societal issues in their country of origin.

This joint seminar includes keynote lectures from invited guests and presentations with findings from two research projects that aim to gain a better understanding of these topics. The first project, Mobile EU Electorates and Democratic Participation (MobilEU), is an international collaboration between scholars from five EU countries and funded by the European Commission. The second project, Political Behavior in the Finland-Swedish Diaspora (FSVdiaspora), focus on non-resident citizens belonging to a linguistic minority and is funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS).

It is possible to attend the seminar onsite or via Zoom (You will recieve the Zoom-link in the confirmation e-mail after registrating). We also provide a live stream of the programme on SLS Youtube channel. 

Last day of registration is June 3 2022.

Seminar programme

09:45 Greetings from the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Tom Moring

09:50 Welcome words from MobilEU Åsa von Schoultz (University of Helsinki)

10:05 Keynote 1: Mobility and Voting Rights: Normative theory questions and empirical research agendas Rainer Bauböck (European University Institute)

10:35 Keynote 2: Absence makes the vote grow farther:  Emigrant voting patterns in homeland elections Eva Østergaard-Nielsen (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

11:05 Coffee break

11:25 Keynote 3: Emigration and Global Autocratization. Exploring Non-Resident Citizens' Electoral Preferences for Anti-Establishment Politics Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero (European University Institute) and Arne Wackenhut (University of Gothenburg)

11:55 Keynote 4: Political Parties Abroad Tudi Kernalegenn (UC Louvain)

12:25 Summary from MobilEU project: Data collections and some research findings

13:00 Lunch break

14:20 Welcome words from FSVdiaspora Staffan Himmelroos (University of Helsinki, Swedish School of Social Science)

14:25 Finland-Swedish Political Behavior Åsa von Schoultz

14:40 Presentation of the FSV-diaspora project Staffan Himmelroos

15:10 Studying the Political Behavior of Non-resident Citizens with the help of Quasi-experimental Methods Isak Vento (University of Helsinki)

15:30 Coffee break

15:50 What happens to social trust after migration? Maria Bäck (University of Helsinki, Swedish School of Social Science)

16:10 The mobilizing effects of political media consumption among external voters Åsa von Schoultz

16:30 Feedback Maria Solevid (University of Gothenburg) & Miika Tervonen (Migration Institute of Finland)

16:50 Wrap-up