Immigration, Voting Rights, and Redistribution: Evidence from Local Governments in Europe

How does immigration influence local redistributive spending? This is a salient question in Europe, where local governments exercise discretion over social policy. Although prevailing accounts predict that anti-immigrant sentiment will fuel cuts in social spending, this perspective overlooks institu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2021-01, Vol.83 (1), p.321-339
Main Author: Ferwerda, Jeremy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Democracy
Expenditures
Foreign residents
Immigrants
Immigration
Immigration policy
Institution building
Local government
Noncitizens
Panel data
Race
Redistribution
Residents
Social policy
Voting rights
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Summary:How does immigration influence local redistributive spending? This is a salient question in Europe, where local governments exercise discretion over social policy. Although prevailing accounts predict that anti-immigrant sentiment will fuel cuts in social spending, this perspective overlooks institutional variation in foreign voting rights. Building on the literature on democracy and redistribution, this article argues that an immigration-induced “race to the bottom” in local social expenditure will be conditional on the political status granted to foreign residents. Where foreign residents possess voting rights, incumbents gain incentives to leverage redistributive transfers to mobilize immigrant votes, offsetting downward pressure on social spending. To test the argument, the analysis draws on municipal-level panel data from nine European countries and implements a difference-in-differences design within two recent cases of franchise extension. The results indicate that the extension of local voting rights is sufficient to reverse downward bias in social spending within diversifying localities.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1086/709301