Political Transnationalism: Factors Associated With Immigrants’ Voting in Their Home Country Elections

Abstract

Political transnationalism, compared with other forms of immigrant transnationalism, and its relationship with assimilation into American society, remains largely unexplored. Using immigrants’ voting in their home countries as an example, New Immigrant Survey data, including that of immigrants who became permanent residents in 2003–2004, were analyzed. The dependent variable was immigrants’ voting in their home country elections, and the independent variables included assimilation, human capital, past political behavior, and their region of origin. Based on the bivariate analysis, transnational voting rates differ by immigrants’ age, race/ethnicity, region of origin, educational level, English proficiency, assimilation, and previous voting behavior. The findings of logistic regression confirmed that assimilation is negatively associated with immigrants’ voting in the home country elections, whereas human capital is positively related to transnational voting among immigrants. Voting momentum was the most influential factor in immigrants’ voting in home country elections. Immigrants’ region of origin was another significant predictor of transnational voting. Future studies must examine immigrant political transnationalism by including national-level factors transcending individual attributes, and host countries other than the US.