Voting Rights for Alien Residents — Who Wants It?

Abstract

Foreign nationals permanently domiciled in Sweden have been entitled since 1975 to vote and to be elected to municipal and county council elections. The question now is whether Sweden should go one step further by enabling foreign nationals to vote and stand for election in Riksdag (Parliamentary) elections as well. This article examines some of the major issues associated with international migration and disenfranchisement of migrants created by a contradiction between economic and political rationale. It presents the actual trends in the exercise of the voting rights by the franchised immigrants since 1976. It examines the attitude of the host population toward this unusual reform, entailing sharing of political power with aliens and the position of the immigrants and the natives toward an even more radical proposal to extend political rights to include even the national parliamentary election.