Migrant Citizens in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Immigration and Political Rights on Local Terms

Abstract

The objective of this work is to identify some of the obstacles faced by migrants residing in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA for its acronym in Spanish) to exercise their political rights. To this, first, the importance of extending migrants’ political rights will be justified in relation to strengthening democracies in receiving countries. Secondly, the limits imposed by the Argentine Constitution and the Migration Law 25.871 to exercising the migrant right to vote at the federal level will be addressed. Thirdly, the diverse political rights recognized in CABA will be analyzed, before and after the approval of the 2018 Electoral Code, including the various obstacles that migrant persons have faced and may eventually face in exercising those rights, starting in 2020. Fourth, the conditions to exercising the right to vote and the levels of participation by the migrant population in the elections in CABA, in 2015, 2017 and 2019, will be evaluated, and some conclusions will be drawn with an eye towards improving the voting conditions in the next elections, with the new Electoral Code in force.