Prior research from different national contexts indicates persistent ethnic/racial disparities in political participation. Studies have sought to explain these disparities by focusing on compositional differences between groups in socioeconomic resources, as well as on the impact of citizens’ local communities. This article investigates unequal voter registration in France focusing on differences across ethnic/racial groups and neighborhoods. We make a novel contribution to the literature by leveraging longitudinal data over a twenty-year period and by focusing on the effects of both the ethnoracial and socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods. Using an event history model, we show that minorities are indeed less likely than natives to register to vote, yet neighborhood and individual-level variables account for these disparities. Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood exerts a negative effect on registration, net of individual and neighborhood heterogeneity. However, the presence of co-ethnics in the neighborhood has a mobilizing effect for some groups. African-origin and French majority citizens are in fact more likely to register as the share of co-ethnics increases in their local areas. 

L’évènement est organisé par la Chaire de recherche en études électorales et la Chaire de recherche du Canada en démocratie électorale. 

Contactez Semih Çakir (mehmet.ali.semih.cakir@umontreal.ca) pour rejoindre la conférence sur Zoom.