Should non-citizens be allowed to vote? Public opinion toward electoral participation of migrants in Canada

Voting rights for non-citizens have been extended at the municipal level in some contexts, and recently there have been discussions about extending the franchise in Canadian local elections. Despite the interest in migrant voting rights in Western, immigrant-receiving societies, there is little research into Canadians’ attitudes and opinions on the issue.

This research addresses this gap with data from a national survey experiment (N = 1,196) testing Canadians’ reactions to extending voting rights to non-citizens with different migration histories. Although Canadians are more supportive of extending voting rights to non-citizen migrants having spent at least five years in the municipality, most respondents remain skeptical, if not outright opposed, to granting non-citizens the right to vote in municipal elections, regardless of whether migrants arrived to Canada as immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers. Moreover, once migrants have gained Canadian citizenship and are eligible to vote in elections at any level of government, Canadians tend to support higher fines for foreign-born citizens who do not vote in federal elections, especially if citizens are former asylum seekers.

The results are discussed in the context of migrants’ participation in Canadian electoral politics.