Migrants at the polls: An analysis of immigrant and refugee participation in Danish local elections

Abstract

Abstract Starting from the puzzle that voter turn‐out among immigrants is higher in Denmark than in other countries where immigrants are eligible to vote in local elections, this article argues that the main explanation is that the Danish local election system with its rules for personal voting contains greater incentives to collective mobilisation than the election rules in, e.g., Sweden. In some Danish cities, certain ethnic groups are mobilising collectively, a phenomenon which is expressed in very high voter turn‐out. As a result, voter turn‐out among, for example, Turks in Århus, is as high as the turn‐out among indigenous Danes, regardless of Danish or Turkish citizenship and regardless of gender.