VoPAD · Transnationalizing Parliaments? Investigating the Voting Power of Europe's Arab Diasporas

As some Arab states are moving towards more open political processes, diasporas have become an increasingly important electoral factor. They contribute to political discourse, and possess the capacity to inject ideas, norms and expectations informed by their host societies into the political sphere of their country of origin. In the European context, these phenomena have been elaborately discussed with respect to the Turkish diaspora among others. However, due to its relative novelty and much greater complexity, Europe’s Arab diasporas, and their ability to influence parliamentary outcomes in their states of origin has comparatively been understudied. VoPAD will fill gaps in current research by examining the influence of diasporic voting on Arab parliaments with a specific focus on the diaspora hailing from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. This will provide new insight into Europe’s Arab diasporas’ role in the post-Arab Spring parliamentary development – and importantly, shed new light on the potential and limitations for transnational forces from Europe - in theform of external voting - to influence parliaments and parliamentary activity in Arab states.As a case- and country-based, comparative investigation, VoPAD is organised around three, interrelated objectives: (1) Mapping the design, procedures and institutional integration of diasporic voting, and how these influence parliamentary composition, and subsequent outcomes; (2) Identifying the voting preferences of the Europe-based diasporas, and whether residence (or citizenship) in Europe influences voting decisions; and (3) Investigating the competition over diasporas and their political engagement – i.e. how home-countries’ try to solicit support from diaspora communities abroad, and the response this solicits in the public sphere of their countries of residence.