Transnational Militancy: Diaspora Influence over Electoral Activity in Latin America

Politicians in many countries campaign among citizens residing abroad, despite the fact that such communities have extremely low rates of participation or, in some cases, no right to vote at all. This raises the question: What benefit does a foreign-residing, non-voting electorate provide parties? Politicians interviewed in migrant-sending countries express their belief that migrants influence the votes of relatives in their home countries by sending remittances. Using a series of hierarchical models built on polling and country-level data, I test whether this is true, by estimating the effect of having U.S.-residing family members on a set of seven political activities of voting-age citizens in Latin America. I find that migrants do have a political influence over their relatives: however this influence does not affect basic level voter participation, but rather motivates relatives to become more engaged on behalf of candidates they already support in activities typical of party militants.