Sweden
A study of Sweden showed “the effect of enfranchising noncitizens on public policy was large, causing spending on education and social and family services to increase substantially in municipalities where noncitizens made up a nonnegligible share of the electorate.” (Vernby, 2012)
Vernby found local government spending on education and family services increased by as much as six percent after Sweden enfranchised noncitizens. Investment also increased in adult education and job skills, programs that noncitizens enrolled in at a much higher rate than the majority population.
A more recent study of Sweden found voting before citizenship substantially increased the propensity of immigrants to naturalize for migrants from places with poor standards of living (Slotwinski, Stutzer and Bevelender, 2020).
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Ron Hayduk
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