The Revival of Group Voting: Explaining the Voting Preferences of Immigrants in Norway

Abstract

Studies of the electoral behaviour of immigrants in Western Europe and North America have revealed a remarkably coherent cross‐national voting pattern. Immigrants from the non‐Western world hold a strong preference for left‐of‐centre parties. This unusual expression of group voting is so stable over time that it has been referred to as an ‘iron law’. There is, however, a dearth of scholarly research on this phenomenon. This article tests two explanations for the left‐of‐centre preferences of immigrants in Norway. The first is that the ideological and socio‐economic composition of the immigrant electorate explains the preference for left‐of‐centre parties. If so, these voters' ethnic or immigrant background is not in itself decisive on Election Day. The second hypothesis is that immigrant voters engage in group voting, in which one's ethnic or immigrant background is significant and trumps other concerns when voting. This would express itself in a coherent voting pattern that cannot be explained by other factors. We also expect those who engage in group voting to favour candidates with similar ethnic backgrounds as themselves. The group voting hypothesis finds the strongest support. The immigrant vote appears to be driven by group adherence, rather than by ideology or social background.

Do Women Vote for Women Candidates? Attitudes toward Descriptive Representation and Voting Behavior in the 2010 British Election

“…This can provide a powerful motivation to vote for candidates or leaders who embody our own demographic characteristics. Evidence to support this contention has been found in other contexts, specifically with respect to ethnicity -in the US (Sigelman et al 1995;Tate 1993;Terkildsen 1992)), Europe (Bergh and Bjørklund 2011;Teney et al 2010), and India (Heath, Verniers and Kumar Forthcoming) -but evidence with respect to gender has been far more mixed, and candidate sex has been found to influence voting behaviour in some elections but not others (Dolan 1998;Dolan 2001;Dolan 2004;Dolan and Lynch 2014).…”

Migration Background and Voting Behavior in Switzerland: A Socio‐Psychological Explanation

“…; Messina , 205; Sanders et al. ) as well as for the first and second generation in the Netherlands (Tillie ) and Norway (Bergh and Bjørklund ). The same is true for local elections in Brussels, where Moroccan and Turkish immigrants clearly preferred the Socialist Party (Teney et al.…”

Race, Ethnicity, and Political Behavior

“…Togeby (1999) claimed that preferential voting in the Danish local elections motivates ethnic minorities to vote at greater rates than electoral rules in other countries. Bergh and Bjørklund (2011) noted that in Norway, immigrants rely on preferential voting to promote their co-ethnic candidates in local elections. Future research should establish with more certainty to what extent preferential voting provides an advantage to ethnic minorities to achieve higher levels of representation and electoral participation of their co-ethnics.…”

“…What is more, ethnic minorities are more than twice as likely to support the Labour Party as White British voters. Similarly, in other European countries ethnic minorities are more likely to vote for left-ofcenter parties than other voters (e.g., Bergh & Bjørklund, 2011).…”