Dominik Hangartner and Alois Stutzer

Non-Citizen Voting Rights, Naturalization and Integration

Project Summary

Intensified by the recent influx of refugees and generally increasing levels of ethnic diversity, Swiss and European governments are struggling with the design of policies that catalyze the integration of immigrants and facilitate the social cohesion of host communities. Against this background, we evaluate the effectiveness of non-citizen voting rights and naturalization for social cohesion.

Subproject one focuses on the role of non-citizen voting rights in migrants’ integration. Our goal is to better understand the impact of non-citizen voting rights on a wide range of economic, political, social, psychological, and health outcomes. We examine non-citizen voting rights in different contexts where foreigners get the right to vote in municipal and/or regional elections. The second subproject estimates the effectiveness of various nudges designed to increase the propensity to apply for citizenship, along with the impact of citizenship on economic success. For this project, we collaborate with several cantons and cities in Switzerland.

Scientific Poster 2022 (PDF)

Key Findings:

• Non-citizen voting rights systematically affect the propensity to naturalize.
• A study on a recent outreach action by the City of Zurich shows that information campaigns can increase naturalization application rates by lowering important hurdles to citizenship.
• Information letters increase the sense that immigrants are welcome to naturalize, enable immigrants to better know the requirements for naturalization, and reduce the complexity of the procedure.

Project-related scientific publications Select publication   Slotwinski, Michaela, Alois Stutzer and Pieter Bevelander From participants to citizens? Democratic voting rights and naturalisation behaviour 2023   Slotwinski, Michaela and Alois Stutzer Women leaving the playpen: The emancipating role of female suffrage 2023   Alrababa’h, Ala’, Scott Williamson, Andrea Dillon, Jens Hainmueller, Dominik Hangartner, Michael Hotard, David D. Laitin, Duncan Lawrence and Jeremy Weinstein Learning from Null Effects: A Bottom-Up Approach 2023   Zimmermann, Severin and Alois Stutzer The consequences of hosting asylum seekers for citizens’ policy preferences 2022   Knechtl, Valentin and Alois Stutzer Swiss Municipal Data Merger Tool: Open-source Software for the Compilation of Longitudinal Municipal-level Data 2021   Roth, Anja and Michaela Slotwinski Gender Norms and Income Misreporting within Households 2021   Stutzer, Alois and Michaela Slotwinski Power Sharing at the Local Level: Evidence on Opting-In for Non-Citizen Voting Rights 2021   Zimmermann, Severin and Alois Stutzer The Consequences of Hosting Asylum Seekers for Citizens’ Policy Preferences 2021   Slotwinski, Michaela, Alois Stutzer and Pieter Bevelander From Participants to Citizens? Democratic Voting Rights and Naturalization Behavior 2020   Slotwinski, Michaela, Alois Stutzer and Roman Uhlig Are asylum seekers more likely to work with more inclusive labor market access regulations? 2019   Stutzer, Alois and Michaela Slotwinski Power Sharing at the Local Level: Evidence on Opting-In for Non-Citizen Voting Rights 2019