Do concerns about emigration shape voting behaviour across the EU?

It is well-established that attitudes towards immigration are linked to policy preferences and voting behaviour in strong and consequential ways. However, we lack insights as to the relevance of the other side of the migration coin: emigration. This becomes especially relevant in the European Union (EU), which guarantees free movement within the Schengen area and where large-scale mobility gained momentum following the Eastern Enlargement (East to West) and the economic crisis (South to North). While previous research devoted a lot of attention to the consequences of free movement in the member states that are predominantly at the receiving end of mobile citizens, we know little about the political consequences of emigration in sending states. Using an original survey conducted in the context of the SOLID research project and fielded in 2021 in 15 EU countries, we ask whether and to what extent concerns about emigration affect voting in contemporary European political systems. We assess comparatively the impact of attitudes towards emigration on electoral competition, distinguishing between individual and party system levels of variation. Our expectation is that concerns about emigration could trigger different heuristics cueing citizens to vote for radical-right or radical-left parties.