Social Exclusion and Electoral Abstention in Neighborhoods with a High Romá Population

Abstract

Some studies have confirmed that gypsy population have an extremely low participation rate in elections. The results have been taken from FOESSA surveys. But other than this source we do not have other surveys which analyse in morte detail the factors that cause this fact. This article is an analysis of the participation in the last general elections, to see whether in those neighbourhoods with a higher rate of gypsy population there is also more abstention. It is impossible to identify those neighbourhoods with the population census, for there is no ethnic identification, and therefore the Gypsy population and housing map is used.
It is confirmed that those neighbourhoods with a higher presence of gypsy population also show a higher abstention. But we take a step further and analyse the potential influence of home income in this relation. It is also confirmed that those sections with a higher presence of gypsy population are the ones with a higher rate of homes in risk of poverty, and the approach is therefore whether the low participation in elections in those neighbourhoods could be income-related. A linear analysis shows that the rate of homes in risk of poverty explains most of the political participation difference between homes with gypsy population and the rest, but not all of it. Therefore the conclusion is that in neighbourhoods with more gypsy population people vote less. This is mostly due not to the fact of there being more gypsy population, but rather to the higher rate of poor households.