Party Membership among Foreign-Born Residents: Insights from Chilean Administrative Census Data (2017–2020)

Chile is one of the democracies that has significantly expanded citizenship rights. Foreign-born residents over the age of 18 years who have lived in the country for at least five years are automatically registered on the electoral rolls, are legally required to vote, and are allowed to join political parties. While existing literature examines the socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing migrant electoral participation, there is limited research on partisan affiliation, which represents a more concrete form of political incorporation. This article investigates whether foreign-born party members and voters differ from nationals, as well as how factors such as gender and age influence decisions to participate through party membership and voting. We rely on an administrative census of all registered voters from 2017 to 2020, which includes over 30 million observations—645,000 of which are foreign-born individuals. Our findings indicate that nationals are eight times more likely to be party members and vote 2.5 times more often than foreign-born residents. Among foreign-born individuals, party membership is more common among women and tends to lean more left politically. Among foreign-born party members, turnout is highest for those affiliated with right-wing parties (relative to centrist and left-wing parties).