How do migrants view and evaluate democracy in European host countries?

How do migrants view and evaluate democracy in European host countries? Some prior studies contend that migrants are less satisfied with democracy because of poor political representation or exclusion in parliament. However, socialisation theories suggest that those who socialised in regimes where critical attitudes towards political authorities are discouraged are more allegiant citizens with relatively positive evaluations of democracy. Using time series data from 2002 to 2022 in 10 rounds of the European Social Survey in 39 countries, along with V-Dem democracy scores of migrant origin and host countries, we examine migrant attitudes towards host country’s democracy. The results show that while migrants from other democratic countries have similar attitudes to those born in the host country, those from less democratic countries deem it more important to live in a democratically governed state and have relatively higher satisfaction with democracy. This suggests that despite the expectations of political exclusion theories, the relative democraticness of the leaving country plays an important role in shaping the political attitudes towards host countries. The findings have implications for the challenges encountered by the EU in supporting democracy and democratic initiatives in its eastern and southern neighbourhoods, and for integrating migrants into the more democratic Western neighbourhood.