Resident Aliens Research Articles

Justice for denizens: a conceptual map

ABSTRACT Under which conditions, if any, is it morally permissible for states to grant non-citizen residents (‘denizens’) different political, socio-economic, and cultural rights than citizens? What, if anything, could justify legal rights-differentiations along the lines of citizenship? This special issue scrutinizes these politically increasingly salient questions from a wide range of perspectives, drawing on recent literature in the ethics of migration, citizenship, multiculturalism, and refuge, as well as on normative theories of law, territory, and settler colonialism. In this introduction to the volume, I sketch a conceptual map of the emerging debate on justice for denizens, making explicit some underlying theoretical assumptions common to each of the three key domains of legal rights-differentiations (political, socio-economic, and cultural rights). I distinguish the question of what is owed to denizens as a matter of justice, from that of what justice permits and requires in respect to denizens generally. And I outline four models, implicit in the literature, for theorizing the moral rights different types of denizens have and lack – to help determine which forms of unequal treatment wrong them. I conclude by providing brief summaries of the seven contributing articles, pinpointing them on my conceptual map.

Effect of citizenship status on access to pediatric liver and kidney transplantation

Transplantation of non-US citizen residents remains controversial. We evaluate national trends in transplant activity among pediatric noncitizen residents (PNCR). Pediatric liver and kidney transplant data were obtained from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Data on transplanted organs, region, waitlist additions, procedures, and citizenship status were analyzed from 2012-2022. Rates of PNCR transplantation activity were compared with population rates from the US Census Bureau. On average, 713 ± 47 pediatric liver and 1039 ± 51 kidney patients were added to the waitlist, with 544 ± 32 liver and 742 ± 33 kidney transplants performed annually. Of these, PNCR comprised 1.5% and 3.3% of liver and kidney waitlist additions and 1.5% and 2.9% of liver and kidney transplant procedures, respectively. There were no significant changes in waitlist or transplant activity nationwide over the study period. There was a significant geographic variation in the percentage of waitlist additions and transplants across the United Network for Organ Sharing regions among the PNCR for liver and kidney transplantation. This is the first study to evaluate national trends in transplantation activity among PNCRs. The significant regional variation in transplantation activity for PNCR may suggest multilevel structural and systemic barriers to transplant accessibility.

Conditional Enfranchisement: How Partisanship Determines Support for Noncitizen Voting Rights

Expanding suffrage is critical for democratic inclusion. In the United States, noncitizen residents are the latest focus of such (re)enfranchising efforts. Public opinion plays a significant role in the passage of legislation expanding or restricting noncitizen access to local elections. Although elite support for noncitizen suffrage is well-documented, little is known about public opinion toward such noncitizen voter policies. What accounts for voter support for noncitizen electoral participation? We argue that the partisan alignment between noncitizens and U.S. voters shapes U.S. voters’ support for noncitizen voting rights. Evidence from two survey experiments suggests that U.S. voters are pragmatic in their enfranchising preferences: voters increase their support for co-partisan enfranchisement but oppose this same policy when considering out-partisans. These dynamics are present among both Republicans and Democrats, underscoring the societal implications of heightened partisanship on American democracy.

Why Do Non‐Resident Citizens Get Elected? Candidates' Electoral Success in Ecuadorian Extraterritorial Districts

To the growing literature on non-resident citizens’ special representation, we contribute with a systematic examination of the role of descriptive representation of citizens living abroad in elections for extraterritorial districts. Using data for the 308 candidacy observations in three two-seat extraterritorial districts in five legislative elections held between 2007 and 2021 in Ecuador, for a total of 30 seats, we test four hypotheses related to the electoral rules, party-level, and socio-demographic factors of non-resident candidates. Ecuadorian non-resident candidates benefit from their incumbency position and party affiliation, along with left-wing ideological ascription and belonging to party organizations that pushed for voting rights abroad and that manifest an interest in emigrant issues. This article contributes to showing what gets emigrants elected in extraterritorial seats and offers a within-country comparison connecting elections with legislative politics across national borders.

Political Professionalization Beyond National Borders: An Analysis of Italian MPs in Overseas Constituencies

Among European countries, Italy is one of the relatively few cases to provide a quota of reserved parliamentary seats for non-resident citizens. Despite an increased scientific interest in the topic, the group of MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies remains overlooked in the available literature. The gap relates to factors such as their socio-biographical profile, precedent careers, parliamentary activity, the role played in their recruitment by the party abroad or at a national level, and their style of representation. In this vein, the article investigates the career profiles of Italian MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies from 2006 (the first elections with the introduction of citizen representatives living abroad) to 2022. Based on an original data set and through an analysis of their biographical and political characteristics, the article builds a typology of elected MPs abroad by cross-referencing two dimensions derived from the literature: the linkage with the host country and the presence of previous political and associational experiences. The analysis shows that different types of MPs have different career lengths and a different capacity to collect preference votes.

Threat of Abstention as a Form of Community Political Criticism Case Study in Rather Village, Sebangki District, Landak Regency

The phenomenon of the threat of abstention is an indication that there is public disappointment with the government. Even though abstaining from voting is a citizen's right, the existence of a collective movement not to vote is a warning to the government regarding the quality of democratic life. The aim of this research is to analyze the emergence of the threat of abstention as a form of political criticism in the community in Punyanget Hamlet, Agak Village, Sebangki District, Landak Regency. The method used to achieve the research objectives is qualitative, with a case study type of research.. The results of the research show that the threat of abstention from the residents of Punyanget Hamlet as a form of social movement is caused by the alienation of residents who are lagging behind in terms of development compared to other hamlets. This has raised the collective awareness of the hamlet residents, involving community leaders, to carry out action in the form of an abstention movement in the 2024 elections. Community social movements as a form of collective action are able to provide reactions to related parties, because the actions taken take advantage of the political moment related to the event. general elections. Even though this movement tends to be incidental and not designed with a clear movement structure, it is able to build the collective spirit of citizens to carry out protests with the threat of abstaining from voting in the 2024 elections, by using social media as a platform for the movement to gain public support.

Local Alien Enfranchisement and External Efficacy Perceptions: Intended and Unintended Effects on Non-citizens and Citizens

Do citizens and non-citizens perceive themselves as more politically influential in contexts with more immigrant-inclusive local enfranchisement policies? Despite long-standing debates about the unequal responsiveness in the political systems of many advanced democracies, we still know little about whether targeted public policies at the local level can alter perceptions of political representation among residents. Importantly, little attention has been paid to the potential intended and unintended consequences of local electoral policies on external efficacy and research designs that include non-citizen residents. In this paper, we argue and test whether local alien enfranchisement raises external efficacy among non-citizens as a highly effective marker of immigrant inclusivity. Next, considering the potential spill-over effects of alien enfranchisement on citizens, we examine whether such electoral expansion is associated with a perceived increase in competition for political influence and a subsequent decline in citizens’ external efficacy. Empirically, we focus on the Swiss case and exploit local electoral institutions’ sub-national and temporal variation using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel from 1999 to 2014. The paper adds to earlier work by proposing local policy context regarding non-citizen enfranchisement as one of the predictors of external efficacy on the resident population. Our findings suggest that perceived political influence among non-citizens is higher in municipalities with inclusive enfranchisement. We find no evidence for citizens experiencing lower external efficacy when voting rights are extended, making alien enfranchisement potentially a valuable tool to improve political integration among immigrants in today’s diverse democracies.

Granting Immigrants the Right to Vote in National Elections: Empirical Evidence from Swedish Administrative Data

AbstractFaced with rising levels of cross-border migration, many countries have extended local voting rights to non-citizen residents. However, empirical evidence indicates that voter turnout among non-naturalized immigrants is lower when compared to citizens. This raises the question of how to explain this difference. A common answer is that the low turnout rates of non-citizen residents are primarily due to the socio-economic composition of this group and the challenges involved in adapting to a new political system. An alternative but less discussed possibility is that the low turnout concerns the nature of the elections. Hence, we examine whether the turnout of non-citizens is hampered because they are only allowed to partake in local elections. Based on a regression discontinuity design (RDD) using Swedish administrative data, we find that turnout could increase by 10–20 percentage points if the voting rights of non-citizens were extended to the national level.

Political party offers of representation for minority voters: advertising in Chinese-language newspapers in New Zealand

For reasons of both electoral competitiveness and democratic legitimacy, political parties in diverse democracies increasingly compete for the votes of immigrant and ethnic minority voters. A considerable literature has examined the effects of electoral advertising on the partisanship and turnout of targeted groups. Little attention has been given, however, to the nature of the representational offers contained in advertising that targets ethnic minorities. Do party advertisements offer descriptive representation, by featuring ethnic candidates? Do they offer geographic representation, by focusing on districts where ethnic minorities live? Do they offer to represent ethnic minorities’ specific interests or experiences? Where ethnic minorities are internally diverse, what efforts do parties make to address such diversity in their advertising? How parties answer these questions affects the scope and inclusivity of the representational offers extended to ethnic minority voters, with consequences for their political inclusion and representation. We examine how these questions have been answered in New Zealand, a country characterised by high rates of inward migration and the enfranchisement of resident non-citizens. Using data from a novel study of New Zealand political parties’ election advertisements targeting Chinese voters, we assess the quantity and character of representational offers made to this internally diverse minority group. Our findings suggest that, even as the main political parties are increasingly making specific representational offers to Chinese New Zealanders, these offers vary across the political spectrum in their quantity, scope and inclusiveness.

Seasonal changes in secretory immunity indices in saliva in indigenous and alien inhabitants of the Yakutia Arctic zone

Introduction. The combination of extreme climate with intensive migration processes creates favourable conditions for the spread of infectious diseases in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. 
 The purpose of the study: comparative analysis of immunity indicators in saliva samples of indigenous and alien residents of Yakutia Arctic zone, taking into account the influence of seasonal factors. 
 Materials and methods. Samples of mixed saliva of indigenous (n=212) and alien (n=120) male residents from Chokurdakh and Tiksi settlements were taken in 4 batches corresponding to the seasonal transition from summer to early winter. Levels of secretory IgA (sIgA) and cytokines IL-1ß, IL-8 and IL-6 in saliva were determined by ELISA. Main Effects ANOVA was used for the data analysis. 
 Results. No significant age-related changes of the indicators were found. During the transition from summer to winter, there was a decrease in sIgA, IL-1ß, and IL-8 levels in saliva of the examined persons (p from 0.001 to 1.6•10–7). Rate of seasonal changes did not differ between indigenous and alien inhabitants. IL-6 level in saliva of Chokurdakh residents (200 km from the sea) was higher (F(1,139)=9,202; p=0.003) and sIgA level was lower (F(1,324)=3,560; p=0.060) than corresponding levels in residents of coastal settlement Tiksi. Comparison of the body mass indices (medians 24.3 in Chokurdakh and 26.2 in Tiksi, p=0.0005) confirms that it may be the result of inequality in physical activity of residents due to almost 2-fold increase in wind speed and precipitation in Tiksi. 
 Limitations. Monitoring period till the beginning of winter, and not later, could predetermine the absence of the expected differences between indigenous (evolutionarily adapted) and alien residents. 
 Conclusion. Evaluation of immunity indicators in saliva samples is a simple and informative approach to study mechanisms of human adaptation to extreme climatic conditions.

Metics and Freedmen: Conflicts of Social and Juridical Status in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek World

Abstract Ancient Greek city-states, or poleis, had a bewildering number of terms for people who lived in them. In Athens, freedmen seem to be assimilated juridically to the status of metics (resident aliens), although socially there were ways of both denigrating freedmen and obscuring the distinction between metic and freed. Elsewhere we can see that under some circumstances distinctions between metic and freed were made, but not in ways that point to strong juridical differences. By looking at the development of both statuses historically, I propose that the juridical assimilation occurred in Athens because metic status was created first, in an historical context in which distinctions between citizens and foreigners was crucial: an imperial power with a strong economy was attracting many foreigners to the mother city. This line drawn between citizens and foreigners was expressed through the law in both the fifth and fourth centuries bce. But the social perception of metics changed in the fourth century, for historical reasons deriving from the assimilation of metics and freed into one category. Other areas of the Greek world with both metics and freedmen may have assimilated the two statuses initially, but over time split them apart.

Still in the ‘Waiting Room’

Abstract Voting is predominantly understood through resident citizens’ viewpoints. Many resident citizens are nervous about the perceived consequences of voting by resident noncitizens. Although New Zealand is the only Western democratic host country that currently allows noncitizens to vote in national elections, citizens have concerns about how noncitizens use this right. This study investigates noncitizen voting from noncitizens’ viewpoints, by exploring the journeys and experiences of Sri Lankan immigrants in New Zealand. Based on 26 interviews with Sri Lankans in Auckland and Wellington, the study found two dimensions—temporal and transnational—that shape immigrants’ views in a different way from those of resident citizen voters. Building on Bridget Anderson’s methodological de-nationalism, the study suggests that we need to recognise the differences between resident citizens and resident noncitizens in order not to homogenise groups and wrongly assume that they share motives and behavioural and decision-making patterns.

Balance of confidentiality and tax transparency in legal regulation of automatic exchange of financial account information in the United States

The subjectof research, relevance. Exchange of information is an important measure of administrative cooperation between and among tax authorities aimed at the fight with tax evasion. Tax evasion is a problem that has gone beyond national borders, thus individual states can’t cope with it alone. In the light of this problem tax authorities develop new forms of administrative cooperation such as automatic exchange of information. While developing new forms, states should remember about the balance of private and public interest. In the context of automatic exchange of information this problem looks like a problem of finding a balance between confidentiality and tax transparency.The purpose.The article discusses the problem of finding a balance between confidentiality and tax transparency on the example of the United States. The choice of the United States may be explained by its national approach to such a balance that differs from the approach of other states that have implemented the Common Reporting Standard and Mandatory Disclosure Rules.The aimof the article is to show what peculiarities in national and international regulation in the United States influence their unique approach and what is the effect of this approach on the global system of automatic exchange of information and the rights of the US taxpayers.The methodological basis.The following scientific methods were used: comparative-legal, formal-juridical and historic-legal. The research was conducted in compliance with the principles of independence and verification of the results.The main results,scope of application. The conclusion of this article is that the balance of private and public interest in the context of automatic exchange of information is reached by the United States through confidentiality provisions exclusively. They use their national state legislation on beneficial ownership and the lack of reciprocity in intergovernmental agreements implementing FATCA to attract foreign investors (non-resident aliens) wishing to avoid reporting under the Common Reporting Standard. Meanwhile, the United States acquire full information on the financial accounts of their citizens and resident aliens who are beneficial owners of such accounts held in foreign financial institutions. Such a state of affairs is dangerous for the effectiveness of the global system of automatic exchange of information. Moreover, it impairs the rights of Accidental Americans who permanently reside in foreign states and have no connection with the United States except for their citizenship but still have reporting obligations before the US Internal Revenue Service.Conclusions.Automatic exchange of information should be developed in compliance with the principle of balance between tax transparency and confidentiality. States should follow one and the same approach to providing such a balance. At the same time the taxpayers’ rights, in particular the rights of Accidental Americans, should be protected and they can’t be outweighed by the need of administrative cooperation between or among tax authorities.

Linguistic justice for non-resident citizens: Protecting language interests away from home

Over the past 20 years, a number of political theorists have been focusing on the just political treatment of linguistic diversity in liberal democratic societies. This body of work, known as the ‘linguistic justice’ literature, has mainly examined two specific categories of linguistic groups: autochthonous linguistic minorities and immigrants. However, it has entirely neglected non-resident citizens, that is, citizens of a country who reside in a different one, and their distinctive language interests and rights. In this article, we address this gap by developing a theory of linguistic justice for non-resident citizens, using diaspora institutions as a case study. More specifically, we draw on the linguistic justice literature to outline two categories of non-resident citizens’ language interests and rights, that is, those related to opportunity access and to democracy. We finally suggest ways in which language-related diaspora institutions could be reformed in order to better fulfil non-resident citizens’ language interests and rights.

Esclusi per legge. “Non-eligible voters” come categoria negletta delle democrazie contemporanee

The inclusive nature of the electoral moment (for all adults) is one of the fundamental criteria of the modern democratic process based on universal suffrage (Dahl 2000, 37-8). However, there is always a more or less significant difference between the number of individuals theoretically entitled to vote based on age (VAP, voting-age population) and the number of those who can effectively do so (VEP, voting-eligible population), meaning those who are legally authorized to participate in elections. Although it is lower compared to the United States case (McDonald 2001), where certain social groups are dissuaded from voting due to mandatory registration procedures (Avery and Peffley 2005; Delwin 2013), the gap between different measurements of turnout is also observed in Europe (Geys 2006; Tuorto 2022). This article aims to compare the countries of the EU-27 (+ United Kingdom) regarding the criteria that regulate inclusion/exclusion and the low participation of social groups most susceptible to temporary or permanent limitations in their participation in voting, in relation to specific conditions and/or public behavior. In particular, the article examines the situation of four categories of voters: individuals with psycho-physical disabilities, convicted offenders, non-resident citizens (natives abroad), and non-citizen residents (immigrants). The heterogeneity of situations found within the European common area highlights significant differences on a legislative and cultural level, attributable to dominant social representations and the normative translation of these representations. The systematic alienation or exclusion of certain social groups from elections raises a legitimacy problem for the quintessential moment of exercising democracy, in the presence of legal, administrative, and symbolic barriers that make electoral results imperfect and at least partially distorted.

Two paths towards the exceptional extension of national voting rights to non-citizen residents

ABSTRACT Only five countries have extended universal voting rights to non-citizen residents for all political spheres (local, intermediate and national): Uruguay in 1934, New Zealand in 1975, Chile in 1980, Malawi in 1994, and Ecuador in 2008. These cases constitute a unique intercontinental medley and an opportunity to study the conditions behind such revolutionary change. Through a calibrated comparative strategy based on most similar system designs (inspired by Mill’s method of difference) using QCA, this paper finds that the extension of national voting rights to non-citizen residents transpired in two distinct scenarios. The first setting (Chile, New Zealand, and Uruguay) took place within unitary states with already-existing local voting rights for non-citizen residents and settler trajectories, but that were not undergoing a liberalisation process. On the other hand, the second configuration (Ecuador and Malawi) developed within unitary states that recognised nationality by ius soli and were going through a process of liberalisation, but without previous local voting rights for non-citizen residents or a settler trajectory. To our best knowledge, this paper offers the first cross-national explanation that involves all cases that have broadened their respective political communities (demoi) to include national voting rights to all non-citizen residents.

Stranger Citizens: Migrant Influence and National Power in the Early American Republic

Even for established early modern nation-states, the question of citizenship, the rights it confers, and the rights of resident aliens and migrants were subjective political sticky wickets. For a new nation, congealed from the Atlantic mélange of the British Empire, the issue was still more mucky. Add to that the universal and global nature of America's natural rights' revolutionary philosophy, the emergent American republican identity that thrust new political duties and expectations upon average men (usually white), and the new nation's need for open trade and an expanding labor force, and the issue clouded even further. John McNelis O'Keefe candidly touts the relevancy of this study given the policies of the previous administration, but it is just as relevant for the prior 240 years. In a republic such as the United States, the rights and duties of citizens, residents, and migrants are paramount yet evolving concerns in which the powerless contest with the powerful for the control of vital resources—among them their lives, liberty, and their pursuits of happiness.

With pulling ties, electoral participation flies: factors mobilising turnout among non-resident Finnish voters

Increasingly many citizens residing abroad maintain connections to their country of origin and follow its national elections. Considering that this group constitutes a growing share of the national electorate, it is essential to better understand factors that motivate electoral participation. In this study, we explore the role of economic, social and cultural ties in a unified analysis of turnout among Finnish citizens residing abroad. We rely on individual-level register data that cover the entire Finnish expatriate electorate (n = 96,290) and match their personal background characteristics (e.g. property ownership, length of stay abroad, language) with official turnout from the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections on the bases of personal identification codes. In line with the theoretical expectations, the results provide strong empirical evidence that non-resident citizens who maintain connections to the country of origin are more likely to vote in homeland elections.

The mobilizing effects of political media consumption among external voters

This study examines political media consumption among non-resident citizens, and whether following politics in traditional and social media in their country of residence and origin has a mobilizing effect on voting in origin-country elections. The topic of our study is inspired by the trend towards increased enfranchisement of external citizens, improved methods for participation from abroad, and the transformation of the media landscape with enhanced possibilities for external voters to follow politics in their country of origin. Based on a survey directed towards a stratified random sample of Finnish external citizens in 15 countries, we find that politically oriented media consumption in the country of origin substantially increases the likelihood of participating in origin-country elections and that this effect holds for traditional media channels as well as for social media. A corresponding mobilizing effect is, however, not found for following politics in the country of residence. This demonstrates the value of relevant information for political participation.

Migrant associations, other social networks of Portuguese Diaspora, and the modern political engagement of non-resident citizens

Portuguese emigration has a long global history and, in recent decades, has increased substantially and diversified its range of destinations. Recent emigration, predominantly to the European Union and Lusophone countries in Africa, complemented the traditional 19th to twentieth centuries’ waves of emigration to the Americas. The Portuguese Diaspora is multigenerational and globally distributed, although diverse. How are those generations of migrants organized within the local spaces of the Diaspora? Based on an innovative survey of more than 500 Portuguese Diaspora organisations, this paper shows how migrant engagement policies and practices are evolving and dealing with the new types of Diaspora relations, organisations and institutions. The main output of this research is an exploratory typology of the contemporary apparatuses of these Portuguese Diaspora systems and their nodes. This typology characterises the modern political engagement of non-resident citizens through their participation in associations and other social networks. With this pioneering paper, we intend to open a discussion regarding the means and forms available to mobilise current and past emigrant groups within a meaningful Diaspora policy.