The Transnational Political Participation of Immigrants: A Transatlantic Perspective by Jean-Michel Lafleur & Marco Martiniello

Author:Jean-Michel Lafleur & Marco Martiniello [Lafleur, Jean-Michel & Martiniello, Marco]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415482028
Goodreads: 13710660
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

This paper has examined the process by which the Mexican state and Mexican migrants have renegotiated their relationship over time, with specific reference to the political and bureaucratic action surrounding the right to vote from abroad. The paper has focused on migrant demand making and on the creation of extra-territorial bureaucracies as important elements in the creation of a diaspora. The paper has also focused on the ways that the institutionalization of diasporas can be inherently contradictory. In the case of the vote from abroad for migrants in 2006, the implementation of the law limited migrant participation in the election.

I can envision optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the future of the migrant vote. A pessimistic scenario is that 2006 marks the high-water point for migrant empowerment in formal politics. This scenario assumes that enough Mexican voters feel that Mexican democracy has been consolidated deeply enough and that migrants, having been given the right to vote, have been accommodated enough. Without the wave of democratization to give migrant demands resonance, they are easier to resist. As one official told me, there is ‘no cost to pay’ for legislators in resisting migrants demands for further political incorporation. Mexican legislators have passed a law consistent with their rhetorical promises, but most Mexican voters are not really paying attention to the details. So using the law to constrict migrant participation and power is less risky than publicly opposing their right to vote.

The optimistic scenario is that the 2006 election was one more gradual step towards full inclusion in political life for Mexicans abroad, towards having the ‘bi-national citizen’ envisaged by University of Zacatecas professors on a national level. Fuller inclusion would require continued political pressure, but in this scenario it would occur as Mexico further pursues democratization. We can also entertain hypotheticals: were Lopez Obrador to win in 2012, his rhetoric indicates he would seek to have a ‘sixth circumscription’ or electoral region giving migrants direct representation in Congress. Other countries, including France and Colombia, give such direct but separate representation to their diaspora (Spiro 2003; Bauböck 2007). This raises many questions. Should the proportion of representation to population be the same for Mexicans at home and abroad? Would migrants be divided into geographic regions across the US to elect representatives in the Mexican Congress, as happens with the CCIME? To advance such a project, migrants would need to harness their latent electoral power by, for example, mobilizing their families on a scale that could credibly impose electoral costs on those opposing migrant inclusion. A migrant party is one possibility, but a fraught one.

One can also imagine optimistic scenarios under the Calderon administration. While the huge margin of victory in percentage terms among migrants is a disincentive for the PAN to change the current system, the system could be made more inclusive and still offer the PAN a fair chance to compete for that larger pool of votes. Also, Lopez Obrador’s conduct after the election was ill received by many migrants, who embraced neither his tactics nor his harsh rhetoric, even if they blame the Mexican government for their migration.

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