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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Political Participation
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2024.1472040

How successfully do immigrant parents transfer their voting behaviour to their offspring?

Provisionally accepted
Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova 1*Christoph Spörlein Christoph Spörlein 2
  • 1 University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany
  • 2 Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study integrates political socialization theory and behavioural genetics to disentangle the mechanisms underlying differences in the intergenerational transmission of voter turnout in majority and immigrant families. The pathways shaping the intergenerational transmission of electoral participation are examined through variations in political exposure within families, offspring’s social engagement in the host country, and the socioeconomic status of the family. We base our analysis on data from the German TwinLife study, comparing majority adolescents with first-generation, second-generation and 2.5th generation immigrants using a genetically sensitive multilevel research design. Focusing on electoral participation, we find that within-family transmission is disrupted for second-generation and 2.5-generation immigrants, whereas there is no difference between native citizens and first-generation immigrants. Taken together, within-family political exposure, social engagement and socioeconomic status only weakly explain the observed gap in intergenerational transmission.

    Keywords: Turnout, Immigrants, intergenerational transmission, political socialization, Twin Studies

    Received: 28 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bozhinoska Lazarova and Spörlein. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

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