Political scientist Victoria Finn researches the voting behaviour of those who enjoy the unique position of being tied to two different countries at once – migrants. Finn, a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, was this year’s winner of the “Migration & Citizenship Best Dissertation Award”, presented by the American Political Science Association. SWI swissinfo.ch spoke to her at the recent Geneva Democracy Week about immigrants, emigrants, and how they vote. SWI swissinfo.ch: Your research on migrant voting rights and political participation is particularly focussed on Chile. What’s the situation there? Victoria Finn: One reason I’m interested in South America is that various countries there are quite liberal about granting voting rights – Ecuador is another good example. In Chile, voting rights are not tied to citizenship: after five years in the country, you can participate in all local and national elections, in plebiscites, in referendums – everything.
