Rural im-mobilization and urban mobilization? An analysis of the political participation of migrant populations in European and Spanish rural and urban areas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2026.284Keywords:
political participation, migrant population, degree of urbanisation, España, Europa, géneroAbstract
A neglected aspect in migration studies is the political integration of immigrants. This article looks at the formal and informal political participation of the immigrant population in Spain and Europe from a comparative perspective, paying attention to a factor that has been little explored so far: the degree of urbanisation of the migrant population's place of reception. The paper shows that different types of political participation are differentially associated with rural and urban contexts: formal participation is linked to a greater extent to rural contexts, while informal participation is more frequent among migrants in urban environments. The Spanish case, due to its own processes of ruralisation, differs from other European contexts, as the political participation of the migrant population, both formal and informal, is higher in rural than in urban areas.
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