Study title

Non-resident and Resident EU Citizens' Views on Non-resident Citizens' Electoral Rights Survey 2023

Dataset ID Number

FSD3860

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3860
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3860

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Sipinen, Josefina (University of Helsinki)
• von Schoultz, Åsa (University of Helsinki)
• Himmelroos, Staffan (University of Helsinki)
• Lesinska, Magdalena (University of Warsaw)
• Lisi, Marco (NOVA University Lisbon)
• Reidy, Theresa (University College Cork)
• Vintila, Daniela (University of Liège)

Abstract

The survey explored views on the electoral rights of non-resident citizens. The survey was conducted among citizens living in Finland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal, as well as citizens living outside these countries. The data was collected as part of the MOBILEU project, which aimed to compare views on voting rights in parliamentary elections. The project was carried out jointly by the University of Helsinki, University College Cork and the University of Liège, and led by Professor of Political Science Åsa von Schoultz of the University of Helsinki. The University of Helsinki was responsible for for collecting and storing the survey data.

First, the questionnaire asked respondents about their views on the political rights of non-resident citizens of their own country, asking them whether the duration of their time abroad should affect their right to vote in parliamentary elections. Respondents were also asked about their views on the significance of the voting method and where to vote, as well as their opinion on the possibility for dual nationals to vote. Respondents were then asked to place themselves on both the left-right political spectrum and the conservative-liberal value axis. Respondents were also asked about their general trust in people and level of interest in politics. In addition, respondents were asked how satisfied they are with the functioning of the political system in their country. Further questions asked about the respondents' activity in following politics and their confidence in their ability to participate in politics. Respondents were also asked to what extent they trust politicians or the government in their country or the country where they currently live, for example.

Next, respondents were asked whether they voted in the previous parliamentary elections in the country surveyed. Those who did not vote were asked the main reasons for this decision. Non-residents were also asked whether they had voted in any elections in their current country of residence in the last ten years. At the end of the questionnaire, non-residents were asked about their history of residence, the main reasons for moving to their current country of residence and how they had settled. Finally, respondents were asked how often they visit their previous country of residence (the country of the survey) and whether they intend to move back at some point.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age group, country of residence, level of education, mother tongue, own and parents' country of birth, and residency status. For citizens living abroad permanently, the data also included background information on residential history.

Keywords

civil and political rights; expatriates; parliamentary elections; political action; political attitudes; political behaviour; political participation; politics; suffrage; voting; voting behaviour

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Equality, inequality and social exclusion (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Sipinen, Josefina (University of Helsinki)

Funders

• European Union. Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (963348)

Time Period Covered

2023

Collection Dates

• 2023-02-19 – 2023-03-05
• 2023-03-29 – 2023-04-28

Nation

Finland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal

Geographical Coverage

Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Adult citizens residing in Finland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, and Portugal, and citizens living outside these countries

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

Probability: Stratified: Proportional

The recruitment of non-resident citizens was carried out in the Meta environment. The survey was distributed through targeted ads on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Thus, the sample consists of users of the above social media platforms. This recruitment method was chosen because it was challenging to locate and contact non-resident citizens through other means. In order to obtain a sample that was reasonably representative of the demographic background, gender and age were taken into account as target variables. The meta allowed two categories for gender: men and women. Age was treated as a binary variable. A cut-off value was set for each group based on the estimated reachability of each group, in order to obtain groups of approximately equal size. For non-European countries, all respondents under 21 years of age were excluded. For ad targeting, the current country of residence was defined as either within Europe or outside Europe, excluding the country of origin. Russia was excluded from these definitions due to Meta requirements (due to the war in Ukraine). For more information, see the background document.

The survey of resident citizens was collected by Qualtrics through its own panel of respondents. The sample was designed to be representative by age, gender and education level. Qualtrics inadvertently collected too many responses for Irish respondents, around 3,500, compared to around 1,000 for other countries. However, the same quotas based on age, education and gender were used. A total of 12,285 people responded to the survey, of whom 4,732 were non-resident citizens and 7,7553 were resident citizens.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

82 variables and 12285 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

There is an over-representation of Irish in the data. Irish citizens living outside Ireland are not allowed to vote in parliamentary elections, so they were not asked for reasons for not voting, for example. In addition, due to an error, Portuguese non-residents were not shown question Q29. There were a large number of missing values in the non-resident responses to questions Q14-Q18. This may be due to the layout of the questionnaire when responding by telephone, which may have led to some questions being missed.

For identification reasons, researchers have classified or deleted all open-ended variables. In addition, the year of birth was omitted from the data and replaced with an age group variable derived from it.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Sipinen, Josefina (University of Helsinki) & von Schoultz, Åsa (University of Helsinki) & Himmelroos, Staffan (University of Helsinki) & Lesinska, Magdalena (University of Warsaw) & Lisi, Marco (NOVA University Lisbon) & Reidy, Theresa (University College Cork) & Vintila, Daniela (University of Liège): Non-resident and Resident EU Citizens' Views on Non-resident Citizens' Electoral Rights Survey 2023 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2024-11-15). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3860

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Other Material

See downloadable files at the top of the page.

More information on the sampling method used for the recruitment of non-resident citizens

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.