(Re) Turn to the West: Migration and Democratic Quality in Central and Eastern Europe (Political Sociology)

My forthcoming thesis focuses on social remittances in CEE - the theory that migrants moving to more democratic Western societies absorb norms and behaviors from their hosts, which they then transfer to their origin societies by way of either return migration or cross-border communication with friends and family left behind (Levitt, 1998, 2001; Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011). The analysis will proceed in two tightly connected steps - one looking at social remittance creation at destination and the absorption of democratic norms and behaviors by migrants abroad, and the other looking at the effects of migration experience and networks abroad in origin societies. While this is a key question in itself, I strongly believe that such work could very usefully be expanded into three ways, altogether generating a full and coherent understanding of the connections between migration and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. First, I would expand the micro-level analysis of the impact of emigration on political culture at origin, providing a macro-level test of the hypothesis that emigration depresses participation and the expression of political voice (Hirschman, 1978, 1993; Anelli and Peri, 2017). Second, I would take a step back and examine the twin questions of 'who leaves?' and 'who returns?' - with particular focus on the potential of reverse causality between migration and democratic quality, evaluating political determinants of migration along with more standard economic factors (Hirschman, 1978; Bygnes and Flipo, 2017). Third, I would move forward and ask the inevitable 'so what?', placing the explanatory focus on the rise of illiberal
populism in the region and looking into the political culture (regime attitudes, political interest, participation) determinants of populist party support; establishing such a link would also imply an indirect effect of migration through its effects on political culture.