Between territoriality, identity, and politics: the external vote of Ecuadorians in Madrid

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the concession of external vote rights to migrants by their sending states, which has been a growing phenomenon in the last decades. Public debate has stressed the need to further inquire the various aspects of external vote. The author proposes a productive dialectic between the theoretical work on political transnationalism and external vote, and the findings of an empirical study realized among the Ecuadorian migrants in the city of Madrid during the 2009 Ecuadorian presidential elections. The significance of external vote rights is analyzed both in terms of its numerical and qualitative participation. Finally, some critical remarks are offered on the interests of States in the concession of external vote rights, and on the relationship between territoriality, identity, and politics.