Political ideology mismatch as a determinant of the intention to migrate: evidence from Latin America

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess whether a difference or mismatch between individual political ideology and predominant political views in society is a significant determinant of the intention to migrate in Latin American countries. Design/methodology/approach - The authors use data from the 2018 Latinobarómetro Survey and conduct logit regressions using intention to migrate as the dependent variable and political ideology mismatch as the independent variable. The authors control for a large set of demographic, economic, and social variables. The authors also conduct Propensity Score Matching to control for potential endogenous effects produced by observable characteristics as well as a commonly used sensitivity analysis known as Rosenbaum's bounding approach. Findings - The authors find that political ideology mismatch is a significant determinant of the intention to migrate in Latin American countries but not symmetrically. The authors find that positioning to the right of predominant views in society is associated with voicing an intention to migrate, but positioning to the left of those views is not. Originality/value - Not much has been said about the role of individual political ideology as a push migrating factor. The paper contributes to fill that gap. The paper also contributes to the discussion about the political ideology of Latin American immigrants and how that ideology may have an effect on internal politics in the host countries. Peer review - The peer review history for this article is available at:https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2022-0028.