THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT EMIGRANT Explaining radical right party voting among expatriate Swedes

Abstract

What can explain the radical right party voting of citizens that have emigrated abroad? Results from the 2014 SOM survey of Swedish expatriates show that 7% of the expatriate population voted for the radical right party of Sweden – the Sweden Democrats. The research area of radical right party support is substantial, and there have been numerous studies presenting explanations to why individuals vote for radical right parties. But so far, there exists no previous investigations of whether these explanations hold for a group of citizens that live abroad. This thesis combines previous research on explanations to radical right support, with the theory of transnationalism, which argues that citizens emigrating from their home country develop identities that are either transborder (only connecting them to their home country) or transnational (connecting them to two or more countries). The hypotheses tested are 1) if previously ‘established’ explanations on radial right vote support also can explain expatriates voting for the Sweden Democrats 2) if expatriates differently developed national identities affect their vote support for the Sweden Democrats 3) if the presumed effect of explanations such as anti-immigrant attitudes leads to even higher likelihood of voting for the Sweden Democrats among expatriate voters with strong national identity. By conducting several logistic regressions, this thesis shows firstly, that Swedish expatriates with negative attitudes towards immigration and with low political trust are much more likely to vote for the Sweden Democrats. Secondly, there is no effect of expatriates differently developed identities and voting for the Sweden Democrats. Finally, no interaction effect is found: having different types of national identities does not moderate the effect of attitudes to immigration on voting for the Sweden Democrats.