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How Migrating Overseas Shapes Political Preferences: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2025

Nikhar Gaikwad Open the ORCID record for Nikhar Gaikwad [Opens in a new window] ,
Kolby Hanson Open the ORCID record for Kolby Hanson [Opens in a new window]  and
Aliz Tóth Open the ORCID record for Aliz Tóth [Opens in a new window]
Nikhar Gaikwad
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Kolby Hanson*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA
Aliz Tóth
Affiliation:
Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Kolby Hanson; Email: krhanson@wesleyan.edu
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Abstract

Scholarship on cross-border migration and welfare state politics has focused on native-born individuals’ attitudes. How does migration affect the redistribution preferences of migrants—key constituents in host and home countries? We argue that migration causes migrants to adopt more fiscally conservative attitudes, driven not only by economic gains but also by psychological shifts toward self-reliance and beliefs in the prospect of upward mobility. We present results from a randomized controlled trial that facilitated labor migration from India to the Middle East. The intervention prompted high rates of cross-border migration and significantly reduced support for taxation and redistribution among migrants. By contrast, left-behind family members did not become more fiscally conservative despite also experiencing economic gains. While the migrants became economically confident and self-reliant, their family members grew increasingly dependent on remittances. Our results demonstrate that globalization’s impacts on welfare-state preferences depend on the pathways by which it generates economic opportunity.

Keywords

Migrantsfiscal attitudesfield experimentout-migration regionsIndiaGulf region

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Research Article
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International Organization , First View , pp. 1 - 38
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The IO Foundation

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Footnotes

*

This paper’s contents were preregistered on the Open Science Foundation/EGAP online registry (20210608AE and 20190327AB).

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