The paradox of progressive politics

Organised by

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

Progressive parties frequently hold the most pro-immigration stances, but sometimes struggle to gather electoral support from immigrant voters. Why is that? We study the behaviour of migrants in Europe and their support for a progressive party family: Green parties. We find that, when compared to immigrants from established democracies, immigrants from (post-) authoritarian contexts are less likely to support Green parties across Western Europe. We suggest that these patterns are driven by socialisation: As the politics of (post-) authoritarian contexts revolve less around green issues, environmental politics and policies are less salient for those who were socialised in these regimes, which makes them less likely to support these parties post-immigration. We test this argument using entropy balancing on cross-national surveys in Europe. We document this green paradox and provide evidence suggesting that socialisation in (post-) authoritarian regimes focuses less on environmental issues. Our results have important implications for our understanding of socialisation effects of political institutions and how cultural norms travel across different political contexts.

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