Transnational Politics and the State ─ The External Voting Rights of Diasporas

With the development of transportation and communication technologies in the era of globalization, migrants have gained an increased ability to maintain social contacts across borders. New policies have been developed to reinforce the State-diaspora relationship through citizenship legislation reforms, programmes to support financial investment in the migrants’ home community or by developing a new public discourse reincorporating emigrants into the nation.

This book examines the motivations and consequences for states wishing to strengthen ties with their population abroad in the era of globalization. In a comparative framework, it focuses on the development of a specific piece of citizenship legislation in Italy, Mexico and Belgium by which emigrants were granted the right to vote from abroad. This analysis sheds light on the influence that emigrants and their home country authorities have on each other while also underscoring global factors constraining the position of these actors in the debate on external voting rights.

With a multi-disciplinary approach this book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, political science, legal concerns, international relations, migration and transnationalism.

Jean-Michel Lafleur is a Research Associate of the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and a lecturer at the Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies, Universite de Liege, Belgium.