Party Identification and Political Adaptation of American Migrants in Australia

Abstract

The study of international migrants reveals processes of political resocialization that include translation, expansion, and replacement of prior political learning. This paper demonstrates that American party identification influences the political adaptation of American migrants in Australia by affecting both whether or not they adopt an Australian party identification and the particular parties they select. However, political ideology is an even more important factor in selecting a new party identification and, in particular, leads some American Democrats to choose a more conservative party, and some American Republicans a more liberal one, in Australia. People who were weak partisans in the United States are more likely than others to relinquish their American partisanship once in Australia. Over and above these individual-level variables, the political environment is also influential: migrants tend to favor parties that have been electorally more successful in the Australian state in which they live. These and other findings suggest that both American partisanship and overall political ideology play key roles in helping migrants to adapt politically to their new environments, and that new political learning is generally dependent upon previously established political attitudes. Nevertheless, migrants' political adaptation is also affected by the political context of the new residence.

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