Peer behaviour affects immigrant voter turnout

The study examines how the tendency to vote is affected by living in residential areas (parishes) with many coethnics. The researchers followed more than 60,000 immigrants who came to Sweden in 1987–1990, and measured turnout in the 1994 local elections.

The top bar shows average turnout (51.3%) and the middle bar shows that the immigrants who were placed in residential areas with many coethnics only voted slightly more (0.7 percentage points) than those placed with few coethnics. This difference is also not statistically significant (as indicated by the color of the bar). The last bar shows that the behavior of those around them is more important: turnout was higher among those who lived in neighborhoods with many coethnics who voted in a previous election.