Migration and Political Institutions: Other Side of the Hill

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of migration population on their host places using evidence from the local election in Hong Kong. Findings of this paper reveal that the migrated population not only shape the political institutions of their home countries but also their host regions, depends on their experience at home countries when they migrated. In particular, population migrated from Mainland China because of social unrest and political turmoils in the early period is found to have no significant influence on the pro-government votes in the local elections of Hong Kong. The share of population migrated from Mainland China after 1990s when the living standard of China has been greatly improved by its economic reform, on the other hand, is found to have a positive effect on the share of pro-government votes. This effect is also found for new immigrants from China which usually do not have the right to vote, supporting the information and beliefs transmission is an important channel for migrants to influence the political institutions. Such effect, however, is not found in a control sample of population migrated from countries other than China.