Does Immigration Affect Who Runs for Office? Evidence from Migration Shocks

Abstract

In this paper, we utilize the quasi-random allocation of refugees to Danish municipalities to study how an inflow of people from both European and non-Western countries affect local politics. In particular, we study if refugee migration affects who runs for office and who is eventually elected. Drawing on an administrative dataset consisting of the full population of political candidates for Danish municipal councils 1993-2013, we analyze how exogenous changes in the share of immigrants and refugees affect (i) the characteristics of candidates for the municipal council, (ii) the ranking of parties’ candidates, (iii) the distribution of personal votes and (iv) the characteristics of elected councilors. This allows us to ascertain the sources of changing political landscapes – from individual would-be candidates over political parties to voters – and to document whether changing demographics changes political representation by mobilizing specific socio-economic strata of the population.