Electoral Participation and Ethnicity. First Results and Research Agenda

The variable of ethnicity is rarely used for explaining electoral participation. When it is, social surveys usually underline the fact that belonging to an ethnic minority is a factor in electoral abstention. This article analyses the contrary hypothesis: how can ethnicity be a factor in electoral participation? To answer this question, the article is based on a study of the electoral participation of 10,475 voters from 10 voting stations in the city of Montpellier during the French 2012 presidential and legislative elections. From the study of voting lists and by cross-referencing this information with the census data of INSEE, we have estimated the impact of ethnicity on electoral participation. The comparison of the results obtained for each voting station, selected on the basis of their geographical and sociological situations, shows that French voters belonging to ethnic minorities living in popular estates were more mobilized than French voters belonging to ethnic minorities living in middle-class areas during the French presidential election. This result, surprising because these populations vote generally less than others, suggests that ethnicity can, under some conditions, play a positive role in electoral mobilization. Our results suggest that the impact of ethnicity on electoral participation is determined both by voters’ social status, some factors tied to social context and by the electoral and media context.